Christopher Hussey (historian)
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Christopher Edward Clive Hussey (21 October 1899 – 20 March 1970) was one of the chief authorities on British domestic architecture of the generation that also included
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and Sir
John Summerson Sir John Newenham Summerson (25 November 1904 – 10 November 1992) was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century. Early life John Summerson was born at Barnstead, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington. His grandfather wo ...
.


Career

His first major ventures both appeared in 1927. One was a collaboration with his mentor and predecessor at '' Country Life'' magazine, H. Avray Tipping, in Tipping's series ''In English Homes, Period IV, vol. 2, The Work of Sir John Vanbrugh and his School, 1699–1736'' (1927). English garden history was an unexplored field when Hussey broke ground the same year with ''The Picturesque: Studies in a Point of View'' (1927; reprinted 1967), which was a pioneer in the history of taste that rediscovered from obscurity figures like
Richard Payne Knight Richard Payne Knight (11 February 1751 – 23 April 1824) of Downton Castle in Herefordshire, and of 5 Soho Square,History of Parliament biography London, England, was a classical scholar, connoisseur, archaeologist and numismatist best k ...
, "a Regency prophet of modernism" in Hussey's estimation. Later in Hussey's career, ''English Gardens and Landscapes 1700–1750'' (1967), also covered fresh territory, as a complement to his Georgian volumes ''English Country Houses''. He is chiefly remembered for the long series of articles he wrote from the 1920s onwards for ''Country Life'' (where he became architectural editor), in which he continued the work of his mentor Tipping in setting architectural history in its social history. Based on his accumulated experience in country houses and their muniment rooms, his series of ''English Country Houses'': ''ECH: Early Georgian, 1715–1760'', (1954?; revised, 1965); ''ECH: Mid-Georgian, 1760–1800'' (1956) and ''ECH: Late Georgian, 1800–1840'' (1958) provided an overview of high-style Georgian domestic architecture. 18th-century Georgian houses were widely admired, but at the time of publication Regency houses were not regarded, though a collectors' vogue for early 19th century furniture had spurred
Margaret Jourdain Margaret Jourdain (15 August 1876 – 6 April 1951) was a prominent writer on English furniture and decoration. She began her career ghost-writing as Francis Lenygon for the firm of Lenygon & Morant, dealers in furnishings with a royal appointme ...
's ''Regency Furniture'' (1934). "The surviving houses of the Regency period took on a new lease of life, partly thanks to Country Life authors such as Christopher Hussey who played a significant role in the rediscovery and popularisation of the Regency period" (Sir John Soane's Museum ''Newsletter'' 10) Hussey's series of monographs on selected houses and a series ''The Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge'' collected material drawn from his ''Country Life'' articles, offered in more permanent format:
Petworth House Petworth House in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century Grade I listed country house, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the design of the architect Anthony Sa ...
,
Clarence House Clarence House is a royal residence on The Mall in the City of Westminster, London. It was built in 1825–1827, adjacent to St James's Palace, for the Duke of Clarence, the future king William IV. Over the years, it has undergone much exte ...
, London, Ely House, London,
Berkeley Castle Berkeley Castle ( ; historically sometimes spelled as ''Berkley Castle'' or ''Barkley Castle'') is a castle in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. The castle's origins date back to the 11th century, and it has been desi ...
,
Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
,
Shugborough Shugborough Hall is a stately home near Great Haywood, Staffordshire, England. The hall is situated on the edge of Cannock Chase, about east of Stafford and from Rugeley. The estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the dissolu ...
were all given the Hussey treatment, and they demonstrate the range of his competence. Hussey contributed the chapters on architectural history to H. Clifford Smith, ''Buckingham Palace: Its Furniture, Decoration & History'' (1931; reprinted 1937) He wrote monographs on the conservative contemporary British architect
Sir Robert Lorimer Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer, KBE (4 November 1864 – 13 September 1929) was a prolific Scottish architect and furniture designer noted for his sensitive restorations of historic houses and castles, for new work in Scots Baronial and Gothi ...
(1931) and ''The Life of
Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...
'', which historian David Watkin rated "the finest architectural biography" in English. Lutyens' first big London office building was the Country Life Building (1904) in
Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
, commissioned by the magazine's editor, Edward Hudson. With A.S.G. Butler and George Stewart Hussey contributed to the definitive three-volume ''Architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens'' (1950), the opening shot in the ongoing reappraisal of Lutyen's buildings. Nevertheless, Hussey's ''Country Life'' articles on contemporary houses are often overlooked. In the next generation, Hussey's example influenced John Cornforth, with whom he co-wrote the later editions of Hussey's ''Guide to English Country Houses Open to the Public'' (first published by Hussey in 1951), and who wrote a series of ''Country Life'' articles in 1981 "Continuity and Progress: Christopher Hussey and Modern Architecture" (''Country Life'', vol. CLXIX, 22 October 1981, pp. 1366–68, etc.) To a lesser extent Hussey's example influenced Mark Girouard, whose ''Life in the English Country House'' (1979) took a new view, concerned with life downstairs as well as with architects and their patrons among the gentry.


Books

* Hussey, Christopher and Tipping, H. Avray. ''In English Homes, Period IV, Volume II, The Work of Sir John Vanbrugh and his School, 1699–1736'' (1927), Country Life, London. * Hussey, Christopher. ''The
picturesque Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...
: studies in a point of view'' (1927), G.P. Putnam's Sons, London and New York.


Sources

* John Cornforth, 'Hussey, Christopher Edward Clive (1899–1970)',
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
, Oxford University Press, 2004


External links


The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography


{{DEFAULTSORT:Hussey, Christopher English architecture writers Hussey, Christoppher E.C. English biographers Country Life (magazine) people 1899 births 1970 deaths People from Lamberhurst