The Lush Classical Landscapes of Ellen Biddle Shipman

Hosted by the Southern California Chapter

In a lecture hosted by the Southern California Chapter on June 11th, 2020, designer Charles King Sadler explored the life and work of the renowned and innovative landscape designer Ellen Biddle Shipman. From her time in the Cornish Art Colony, to her collaborations with Charles Platt, Shipman achieved a remarkable career in the early part of the twentieth century. Using the particular design elements employed at The Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans, LA, Mr. Sadler explores Shipman’s unique skill at creating formal garden rooms while providing seamlessly designed transitions. Mr. Sadler also highlights Mrs. Shipman's classical design philosophy and her particular skill in navigating and implementing the wishes of the property owners she worked with.

Over the course of two decades, Charles King Sadler has developed a practice for the care and restoration of landscapes that has resulted in his being sought after for work on properties across North America and consulted by top European landscape practices.

Charles began his career as a freelance illustrator, with a degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, he applied his artistic talent to newspaper illustration for publications such as the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Charles returned to school, SUNY-ESF on the campus of Syracuse University, to pursue master’s studies in Landscape Architecture, and he started his own design.

Presented as part of the Bunny Mellon Curricula at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. The ICAA is very grateful to the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation for its generous support of this program, along with the Curricula's Lead Co-Sponsor Hollander Design Landscape Architects, Film Series Co-Sponsor Janice Parker Landscape Architects, and Continuing Education and Public Programs Co-Sponsor Charlotte Moss.

Image: Chatham Manor in Fredericksburg, Virginia Photographed in 1927 by Frances Benjamin Johnston. Library of Congress.

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