The Horticultural Roots of Joseph Breck

Cuxa Cloister as reinstalled by Breck at the old Cloisters after its acquisition by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1927. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

«Recent posts by Michael Carter and a special seventy-fifth anniversary Bulletin by Timothy B. Husband introduced readers to a pivotal yet seldom-recognized figure in the formative years of The Cloisters museum and gardens—Joseph Henry Breck (1885–1933). The basic layout of the galleries and gardens of The Cloisters is primarily due to Breck's close collaboration with the architect Charles Collens, and their final plans provide coherence when the museum and gardens are seen as a whole. Sadly, Breck died suddenly in 1933 and never saw his plans realized. In addition to his formidable talents as an art historian, Breck was also a skilled artist, contributing many illustrations to the Harvard Lampoon during his undergraduate years. His watercolors and pencil sketches serve as visual evidence of his inspirations and thought processes while planning The Cloisters. While Breck's curatorial training and career are well documented, his interest in gardens is not.»

Breck was descended from a long line of horticulturists and nurserymen, many of whom were also named Joseph. His great-grandfather Joseph Breck (1794–1873), established Joseph Breck & Company, a seed and agricultural implement business in Boston in 1822. It grew into a large catalogue concern, publishing what amounted to small books that served as educational tools; the catalogues became resources themselves, and included essays, references, and large numbers of engravings. Joseph Breck moved to Brighton, Massachusetts—across the Charles River from Cambridge—in 1836, initially purchasing twenty-eight acres for a nursery before adding an adjoining estate in 1854. Brighton was an important horticultural center, boasting three major nurseries in the early nineteenth century. Breck's Gardens, as his nursery was called, was located in the Allston neighborhood, on what is now Breck Avenue. The firm was passed down to his son and grandsons, reportedly remaining in the family's hands until the late twentieth century.

Breck was a founding member of the American Seed Trade Association; an original member, and later president, of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society; and a noted author. The company's seed catalogues list many plants that were known in the Middle Ages and, consequently, continue to be grown at The Cloisters today. Breck was even a great proponent of ornamental flowers and published two books on the subject: The Young Florist (1833) was only the second book on flowers to be published in America, uniquely targeting a young audience; The Flower Garden; or, Breck's Book of Flowers was published in 1851, although Breck had starting writing it two decades earlier. A guide for new gardeners "just entering the temple of Flora," the book provided practical information as well as descriptions of plants, and remains one of the most comprehensive books on mid-nineteenth-century American garden flowers.

Garden designed by Breck at the southeast corner of the old Cloisters site, 1927. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Immediately upon acquisition of George Grey Barnard's Cloisters in 1925, Joseph Henry Breck and the Metropolitan Museum realized that the installation of the collection required improvement; it was reinstalled under Breck's direction—including the grounds and gardens. Cuxa Cloister was installed in a form later replicated at The Cloisters' new site in Fort Tryon Park: four complete arcades; a garth garden with central fountain; flagstone paths; fruit trees in each quadrant; and ornamental borders with "archaeologically correct" medieval plants such as boxwood, roses, and iris.

Breck designed a second formal garden with raised beds and brick paths centered on a medieval Venetian wellhead, a plan which was only slightly modified for the Bonnefont Cloister herb garden. His design for this garden survives, which includes a list of twenty-nine plants and a planting plan. It clearly illustrates that Breck had at least some horticultural knowledge, although his ornamental plant choices were quite conventional: delphinium, lilies, asters, tulips, nasturtium, and petunias among them. The basic garden layout is inspired by the square or rectangular medieval herbarium, or herber, for which visual evidence survives. Quite typical of garden depictions, for example, is the enclosed garden seen through the window in the background of the Annunciation scene by Hans Memling on view in Gallery 640.

Hans Memling (Netherlandish, active by 1465–died 1494). The Annunciation (detail), 1465–75. Oil on wood; 73 1/4 x 45 1/4 in. (186.1 x 114.9 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.7)

A number of Breck's watercolors and pencil sketches survive in The Cloisters archives, including seven studies for the Bonnefont herb garden—all of which are dated November 27, 1932; clearly Breck was particularly stirred by thoughts of the gardens on this day. The most straightforward drawing shows a very ambitious scheme for what is actually a rather small space.

Joseph Breck (1885–1933). Plan for the Bonnefont Cloister garden for The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park, signed "Joseph Breck" and dated November 27, 1932. Pencil on paper. The Cloisters and Fort Tryon Park Architectural Drawings and Prints; The Cloisters Library and Archives, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

An enclosed herber includes square beds at the center and each corner, containing a small tree, with a small orchard and raised platform with a fountain on the west side of the garden. Additional drawings are considerably more whimsical and painstaking. These sketches all include figures of monks or ladies either working or seated in the garden. Breck clearly imagined how the gardens would be experienced and had a very personal vison of them, rather than simply approaching the plan as an objective exercise.

Joseph Breck (1885–1933). Sketch for the east arcade of Bonnefont Cloister and central enclosed garden, signed "J.B." and dated November 27, 1932. Pencil on paper. The Cloisters and Fort Tryon Park Architectural Drawings and Prints; The Cloisters Library and Archives, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The scale of the gardens at The Cloisters is indeed intimate, although many of Breck's concepts were not actually constructed. A note on the sketch for the east arcade of the Bonnefont Cloister indicates that he was still working through his ideas, and in the end neither the fountain nor benches were built. In the background of the lower drawing shown above, however, Breck depicts a very accurate view of the southwest elevation of The Cloisters as it was later constructed, with the Bonnefont arcade, upper wall of the tapestries galleries above, and Gothic Chapel at the left.

Joseph Breck (1885–1933). Design showing the raised platform with fountain at southwest corner of Bonnefont Cloister garden and steps on the north side, dated November 27, 1932. Pencil on paper. The Cloisters and Fort Tryon Park Architectural Drawings and Prints; The Cloisters Library and Archives, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Neither the fountain nor orchard were built as proposed. A wide platform was built along the entire west edge of the garden, and a larger orchard was planted just below the south wall.

The exceedingly charming and fanciful final drawing is quite detailed: the Gothic Chapel appears again on the right; a fenced orchard extends along the west side of the garden; a monk carries a spade over his shoulder in the orchard; a woman in medieval attire sits on a U-shaped turf bench (known as an exedra) in front of an arbor; and another figure is seated in the raised area at the left edge of the drawing.

Joseph Breck (1885–1933). Sketches for the west side of the Bonnefont Cloister garden, fence, gate, and wall details, signed "J.B." and dated November 27, 1932. Pencil on paper. The Cloisters and Fort Tryon Park Architectural Drawings and Prints; The Cloisters Library and Archives, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The detail of fences and a crenellated wall in the lower sketch reveals Breck's inspiration for the gates in the central garden: a manuscript made around 1500 illustrating the "Roman de la Rose," a thirteenth-century allegorical poem of courtly love. A copy of his great-grandfather's book The Flower Garden; or, Breck's Book of Flowers, was presented to The Cloisters Library by his family after Breck's death in 1933. It is perhaps a notion as sentimental as his great-grandson's sketches to think that the longstanding love of plants the Breck family has borne fruit in The Cloisters gardens, home to so many of the Old World species admired and offered for sale by Joseph Breck over one hundred years earlier.

Related Links
In Season: The Death of Joseph Breck and the Formation of The Cloisters Library
"Creating the Cloisters": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 70, No. 4 (Spring 2013)