Henri Copijn
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Henri (Hendrik) Copijn (1842-1923) was born in Groenekan, just north of Utrecht in the central part of The Netherlands. He came from a family of nurserymen, but his father Jan Copijn (1812-1886) also designed gardens and parks. Besides being a landscape architect, he also was a nursery man himself, as well as a dendrologist.
After his father's death Henri continued the nursery business together with his half-brother Pieter Gerard. This collaboration, with Henri as the designer, and Pieter as the one who delivered the trees and plants, resulted in the creation of some large parks, where often trees of 40 to 60 years old were transported from afar to create an instant mature garden (Hydepark, Rams-Woerthe). In 1900 Pieter started his own nursery. Henri started a new company with his son Lodewijk (Louis) the following year, H. Copijn & Zoon (H. Copijn and Son). By then he had developed into one of the most influential and asked for designers in The Netherlands. In 1911 he took over the nursery from his half-brother Pieter. Over a century later, members of the Copijn family are still in the nursery business, work as landscape architects and tree surgeons and run garden maintenance services throughout large parts of the Netherlands.
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[edit] Style(s)
Henri Copijn did not limit himself to one style of gardening. Cherry-picking the multitude of gardening styles available to desgners of his era, he gradually developed from a designer of gardens in a -by then- somewhat old fashioned German landscape style (aka gardenesk style), through what is known as the mixed gardening style, to finally incorporate the architectural style by the end of his career. But cherry-picking in this case means precisely that: he combined styles when this suited him, founding the final choise and perfect mix on the architecture of the house and on the terrain as it presented itself. Henri Copijn is said to have had his heydays between 1880 and 1905, when he designed his most well known parks. The fact that he continued to develop his own style while tastes in gardening changed with increasing pace during his lifetime, makes him special.
[edit] Landscape style
His landscape designs contain ellipsoid or circular flower beds within droplet shaped areas cut out by the fluently winding paths of the garden or park. His designs are often presented in a bird's eye view, which gave him the opportunity to show off his knowledge as a nursery man and dendrologist in the shape of the trees he depicts (but he was far from alone in doing so). An element more suitable for the upcoming mixed gardening style, in which landscape designs contained areas with a more classical or baroque layout, are the regularly shaped basins near the house he sometimes designed.
[edit] Mixed and Architectural style
His designs in the mixed style (from 1885 onwards) often have a geometrical flower garden near the house. Henri Copijn tends to hide the vegetable garden and farmland behind hedgerows of shrubberies, thus echoing the way these garden areas were treated in the baroque styles. That would normally be the way these garden features would be treated in the architectural style. But Copijn tried to maintain an open design of the garden even when he worked in that style, contrary to fellow-architect Tersteeg or contemporary representatives of the cottage style in England.
[edit] Jan Copijn's works
- (1863) Pavia, Zeist
- (1865) Gunterstein, Breukelen
- (1878) De Boom, Leusden
[edit] Fa. J. Copijn en Zoon's works
- (1862) Zeisterbos, Zeist
- (1880) Kronenburgerpark, Nijmegen
- (1880 >) Singels, Nijmegen
[edit] Henri Copijn's works
- (1860 and 1890) Blookerpark / Zandbergen, Huis ter Heide
- (1870) Schoonoord, Zeist
- (1871) Oolde, Laren (Gld)
- (1871) Park Groenestein, Groningen
- (1872-1876) Den Hemelschen Berg, Oosterbeek
- (1873) Amaliapark, Baarn
- (1875) Reigersbergen, Den Haag
- (1879) Villatuin J.M. Borduyn, Zeist
- (ca 1880) Trompenberg, Hilversum
- (1880) Villa Nuova, Zeist
- (1881) Duno / Jagershuis, Renkum
- (1881) Wilhelminapark, Zeist
- (1882) Noorderplantsoen, Groningen
- (1885-1888) Hydepark, Driebergen
- (1886) Van der Werffpark, Leiden
- (1888) Hoogland and Houtwijkerveld (later: Wilhelminapark), Utrecht
- (1888) Sperwershof, 's-Graveland
- (1889) Nieuwe Oosterbegraafplaats, Amsterdam (not executed)
- (1890) Oude Begraafplaats, Zeist
- (1890) Pietersberg, Renkum
- (1894) Paleis Noordeinde, Den Haag (not executed)
- (1894-1896) De Haar, Haarzuilens
- (1895) Snouck van Loosenpark, Enkhuizen
- (1899) De Wittenburg, Wassenaar
- (1899) Rams Woerthe, Steenwijk
- (1900) Vogelenzang, Vogelenzang
- (1900) Schaerweide, Zeist
[edit] Firma Henri Copijn & Zoon (1901-1945)
[edit] Firma Henri Copijn & Zoon's works
- (1903) Julianapark, Utrecht
- (1904) Diergaardepark, Hilversum
- (1904) Walkartpark, Zeist
- (1904) Rengerspark, Leeuwarden
- (1909) Schoonoord, Zeist
- (1910) Heiderust, Rhenen
- (1912-1915) Nijenrode, Breukelen
- (1913) Groot Warnsborn, Arnhem
- (ca 1915) Park Rijnstroom, Alphen aan den Rijn
- (1917) Monnikenberg, Hilversum
- (1917-1918) De Breul, Zeist
- (1920) De Helmer, Enschede
- (1921) Menkemaborg, Uithuizen
- (1920) Vollenhoven, De Bilt
- (1925) Huys te Warmont, Warmond
- (1927) Philips-de Jongh Wandelpark, Valkenswaard
- (1927) Hakenberg, Beuningen
- (1928) Algemene Begraafplaats Kranenborg, Zwolle
- (1929) Pinetum Blijdenstein, Hilversum
- (1930) Schoonoord, 's-Graveland
- (1930) Sandwijck / dr. C. van Boetzelaerpark, De Bilt
- (ca. 1932) Berg en Bos, Apeldoorn
- (1933) Willem de Zwijgerplantsoen, Utrecht
- (1939) Heeswijk, Heeswijk-Dinther
[edit] Lodewijk Copijn's works
- (1939) Selwerderhof, Groningen
