Geoffrey Scott (11 June 1884 – 14 August 1929) was an English scholar and poet, known as a historian of architecture. His biography of Isabelle de Charrière entitled ''The Portrait of Zelide'' won the 1925 James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Background

Born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, Scott was educated at

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate ...

, then

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...

and

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, where he won the Newdigate Prize in 1906. While still an undergraduate he was befriended by

Mary Berenson Mary Berenson (born Mary Whitall Smith; 1864 in Pennsylvania – 1945 in Italy) was an art historian, now thought to have had a large hand in some of the writings of her second husband, Bernard Berenson. Biography Her father was Robert Pearsa ...

, leading to his admission to the

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

'circle' of Bernard Berenson. From 1907 to 1909 he was employed by Berenson; he worked on the design of the garden of ''

I Tatti Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies is a center for advanced research in the humanities located in Florence, Italy, and belongs to Harvard University. It houses a collection of Italian primitives, and of Chinese and ...

'', the Berenson villa, with

Cecil Ross Pinsent Cecil Ross Pinsent FRIBA (5 May 1884 – 5 December 1963) was a British garden designer and architect, noted for the innovative gardens which he designed in Tuscany between 1909 and 1939. These imaginatively re-visited the concepts of Italian 16th ...

. This led to work on other gardens. It also brought him the friendship of

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...

, who met him there. In 1914 the publication of ''The Architecture of Humanism'' made his reputation. In 1916, he married Lady Sybil Cutting (1879–1943), whose first husband, William Bayard Cutting Jr., died in 1910. Lady Sybil was the youngest daughter of Irish peer and barrister, Hamilton Cuffe, 5th Earl of Desart, who served as the last

Lord Lieutenant of Kilkenny This is a list of people who have served as the Lord Lieutenant of Kilkenny. There were lieutenants of counties in Ireland until the reign of James II, when they were renamed governors. The office of Lord Lieutenant was recreated on 23 August ...

, and his wife, Lady Margaret Joan Lascelles, a daughter of

Henry Lascelles, 4th Earl of Harewood Henry may refer to: People * Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal ...

. She had arrived in Florence when her first husband, terminally ill with tuberculosis, had written he wanted their young daughter, Iris, to grow up in Italy, "free from all this national feeling which makes people so unhappy. Bring her up somewhere where she does not belong." Lady Sybil and her daughter settled in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

; buying the

Villa Medici in Fiesole The Villa Medici is a patrician villa in Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy, the fourth oldest of the villas built for the Medici family. It was built between 1451 and 1457. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed as Medici Villas and Gar ...

, one of the city's most spectacular villas. There she formed a close friendship with Bernard Berenson at the nearby ''I Tatti'', and seasonal resident Lady Cecilia Pearse. The Scotts divorced in 1926, and she remarried (to Percy Lubbock) the same year. With little in the way of career, it has been suggested that an unlikely love affair with

Vita Sackville-West Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH (née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer. Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet and journalist, as wel ...

from 1923 to 1925 spurred Scott into his later literary production. At the time of his death, of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

in New York City, Geoffrey Scott had been retained as an editor of the papers of

James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 (New Style, N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the Englis ...

. He was one of

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

's close friends.

Works

* The Architecture of Humanism: A Study in the History of Taste (1914) * A Box of Paints (1923) poems * The Portrait of Zélide (1925) biography of Isabelle de Charrière James Tait Black Memorial Prize Biography Award 1925 * Poems (1931)

References

* ''Geoffrey Scott and the Berenson Circle: Literary and Aesthetic Life in the Early 20th Century'' (1998) Richard M. Dunn

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Geoffrey 1884 births 1929 deaths Alumni of New College, Oxford English architectural historians People educated at Highgate School People educated at Rugby School People from Hampstead James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients English male poets 20th-century English poets 20th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers