A garden, a life.

On a summer night in 1958, the Oak Springs estate in rural Virginia was drifting into a deep sleep under the shroud of twilight when suddenly the sound of an urgent phone call broke the quiet air.

"I don't like my own house, I like your home!" On the other end of the phone, an excited female voice came, she excitedly praised all the things she saw in the manor during the day, while impatiently inviting the lady of the manor on the other end of the phone to come and be a design consultant for the courtyard of her own house.

Oak Springs Manor

The caller is Jacqueline Kennedy, and the first lady's heart is fascinated by the Oak Springs estate, which belongs to the top U.S. gatekeeper Mellon family's 100 billion daughter-in-law - Rachel Lambert Mellon.

Born in the United States in the 20th century, she was not a professional designer, but influenced the pioneers of the fashion industry with her extraordinary taste; she was not an artist, but profoundly promoted the development of the field of art in the United States. She not only made the jewelry poet Sloane Berger but also made the famous designer Given admire her.

Today, we will talk about this Mrs. Mellon.

1

The wife of a rich family who is addicted to gardening

Simple casual clothes, a pair of tennis shoes, and a sun hat, usually, Mrs. Mellon will often have such a simple and natural look to show people. If you meet her on the estate, you can even see her holding a small hoe like a gardener, hands covered with dirt.

In the 20th century in the United States, the Mellon family was ranked among the top ten consortia, along with the Rockefeller family. Mrs. Mellon's grandfather was the founder of Listerine mouthwash, and her father was the president of Gillette and the founder of Warner-Lambert.

Despite coming from a high family and later marrying into the Mellon family, she has always been different from most rich wives. She does not like social gatherings, does not like the spotlight, and her greatest passion in life is gardening. The President's wife Jacqueline misses the Oak Springs estate, grass and trees are personally cultivated by her, care.

Manor all the buildings, although only a few gray tiles and white walls of the short house, it seems difficult to make people think that there will be the United States' top tycoon's permanent residence. But once you step into the garden, you will find that every design is showing the owner's extraordinary identity and taste.

A row of tall Mary Potter begonias forms a shaded promenade that leads straight to the entrance of the garden.

Even the water faucets are carved with animal bronze statues

Fruit trees and shrubs are pruned into special shapes, grasses and flowers dot the winding stone paths, and in the corners, flowers and plants are clustered around tables and chairs, forming a chic little landscape.

The French-inspired tea room, on the other hand, stands near the water, reflecting the turquoise figure.

The roof of the conservatory in the garden is by Sloan Berger, and the interior is a stunning muse-en-scene mural by French artist Fernando Lenard, which incorporates the owner's usual gardening tools.

These paintings depict baskets, spray pots, gardening hats, letters, cigarettes, coats, and more with extreme realism.

Watching Beatrix Potter illustrations growing up, Mrs. Mellon grew up with a great desire for the idyllic life, she began to teach herself about gardening at the age of ten, in the absence of professional training, all based on the love of the garden and plants to explore their learning to become a gardener.

By the age of 12, she had become a young gardener, and these early contacts with gardening awakened in her a lifelong passion for plants and gardens.

She visited many forests and botanical gardens and collected many rare plant books. In the Oak Springs estate, there is a garden library, which collects and displays more than 16,000 rare gardening books and manuscripts.

In addition to her estate, Mrs. Mellon's gardening path has also produced several high-profile outstanding works. 1960, she received a call from the White House, by the recently inaugurated President Kennedy sincerely invited her to redesign the White House Rose Garden.

Jacqueline and Mrs. Mellon were also confidantes who could talk to each other.

What President Kennedy wanted at that time was not a pure garden, but a symbol of the country. Mrs. Mellon, who had the responsibility of visiting a large number of estates, finally made the bold decision to eliminate most of the existing fences and replace them with lawns, completely opening up the space of the garden.

The White House Rose Garden in 1966

The White House Rose Garden's iconic magnolia tree was also planted at that time.

After her transformation, the open and relaxing garden could accommodate more than 1,000 people at a time. Since then, the fragrant White House Rose Garden has not only become an important place for every president to receive guests, but also an iconic location for political events.

In addition to the White House Rose Garden, the famous designer Given's Chateau Truncheon garden in the Loire Valley is also the work of Madame Mellon.

Even Given, who is a ghostly genius, had to admire Madame Mellon's design. Many French classical garden elements surround the Renaissance-style building, not only a not half old and stagnant feeling but also bringing a fresh and elegant romantic atmosphere.

The two of them became lifelong friends after they shared the same interest.

Although self-taught, Mrs. Mellon is a master gardener in gardening. The famous landscape designer Lansing Rob once praised her as "America's leading landscape genius".

Plants and gardens have been infused over the years, giving Mrs. Mellon a refined taste for nature. In the company of flowers and plants, she also extended the vibrant greenery of the estate to her favorite jewelry and wrote a good story about her friendship with the famous jewelry designer Sloan Berger.

2

The "woman behind" Sloane berg

Long before Sloane Berger rose to fame, Madame Mellon knew him as a designer and client, but also as a close friend with mutual admiration and recognition, both lovers of nature and the outdoors.

Often inspired by Mrs. Mellon's gardening work, Sloganeering has created many of her classic jewels over the years with a natural touch.

Stefan's classic bird-on-stone brooch, also first designed by Sloane Berger for Madame Mellon / Sloane Berger's store was then just a few blocks from Madame Mellon's home, and she was a deserving VIP client in the jewelry designer's private salon.

A famous jasmine necklace designed by Schlesinger is owned by Madame Mellon. Golden laceration vines twist and weave around 16 colored stones of various sizes, while diamond-set flowers bloom on top of the branches and leaves.

The 16 different colors and sizes of colored gemstones are in an unprecedented balance of color and arrangement.

Jasmine Necklace, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Collection

Madame's life experiences also often served as an important source of inspiration for the designer. This precious jellyfish brooch is an heirloom born from an accident in which Mrs. Mellon was stung by a monk's hat jellyfish on the beach, which inspired the creation of Sloane Berger.

The eerie blue of the moonstone is an apt representation of the transparent and dreamy figure of a jellyfish in the sea.

In 1959, Madame Mellon received a rare Kashmir sapphire from her husband and ordered a small gold pot from Schlesinger to protect this natural treasure.

The jewel was simply made into a sunflower with gold stems and leaves and "planted" directly into the real pot, creating this unique and rare piece.

When Mrs. Mellon ordered a diamond brooch, Schlesinger moved the sapphire to the brooch and replaced the stamen with a huge amethyst.

From botanical flowers to exotic birds to marine curiosities, the creative collaboration between the two men spanned decades and resulted in countless vibrant pieces of jewelry designed by Sloane-berg for Madame Mellon, the natural charm of which is a tacit understanding between the pair.

White floral brooch / Elegant and magnificent petals shimmering with stones and gold.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has the largest and most comprehensive collection of Sloane Berger's work in the world, thanks to a generous donation from Madame Mellon.

Although Mrs. Mellon collected countless pieces of jewelry, she spent most of her time in the public eye without makeup. For her, jewelry was not an accessory to show off her status and wealth, but a reminder of the good things in life.

Jewelry inspired by the apple trees of Oak Springs Estate

Radish and cauliflower-shaped rings, shovel-shaped brooches, and pineapple-shaped earrings ...... are found in her vast jewelry collection, which is filled with pieces related to her gardening life and full of countryside interest.

From gardening tools to plants, everything can be made into jewelry

The images immediately bring to life the scenes of Madame Mellon's gardening days, and even the scent of flowers and plants soaked in morning dew.

Madame Mellon in the garden

The jewelry of Madame Mellon is just like herself, without any pretensions but with an incomparable sparkle.

These naturalistic jewels show her quietness and spirituality from the heart.

However, such a low-key lady also did a very high-profile thing, enough to be remembered in history.

3

The Founding Father of the National Gallery of Art

In 1937, the National Gallery of Art was inaugurated. At the time of its establishment, the American art scene was on the rise, but Washington, D.C., did not yet have an art hall that could rival the major museums of Europe.

National Gallery of Art

In keeping with the Mellon family's love of art, and to allow the American people to see the world's finest art in their capital, Mrs. Mellon and her husband were determined to make the National Gallery one of the world's leading art centers.

So the couple set out to find precious art from around the world and bring it back to the United States.

Mr. and Mrs. Mellon

Mrs. Mellon's eye for art was honed through years of gardening, and while her husband was preoccupied with British art, she acquired large quantities of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works and 19th and 20th 20th-century.

Her love of birds and flowers, gardens, and farms can also be seen in these artworks that span centuries.

Pizarro's "Woman in the Meadow", which sold for $2,461,000

Van Gog, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Manet and Cezanne ...... are some of the names that are now on the auction block, all of which were in the pocket of Madame Mellon at the time.

The Bridge at Argentinian/Monet/1874/National Gallery of Art Collection

Field of Flowers in Holland/Van Gog/1883/National Gallery of Art Collection

Dancing Breton Girl/Paul Gauguin/National Gallery of Art Collection

Mrs. Mellon's tastes were sometimes daring, and when she stumbled into Marc Rothko's studio in New York in 1950, most people looked at the deviant artist with incomprehensible criticism.

However, Mrs. Mellon threw her money away and purchased 13 works from the artist in one go.

A Rothko painting still hangs on the wall of the Oak Springs estate library

Her move, and even triggered a rare argument between her and her husband. Unable to appreciate these works her husband straight to her exclaimed: "I do not understand why you want to buy those! "

When confronted, Mrs. Mellon chose to take it in stride. Of course, years later, when Rothko's works sold for hundreds of millions of dollars, no one would ever question her artistic vision.

During her lifetime, Mrs. Mellon and her husband donated more than 1,000 works of art to the National Gallery of Art, and it was through the couple's persistent efforts that the National Gallery of Art was able to build a collection of art that rivaled that of the Louvre and the British Museum in just a few decades.

The National Gallery of Art has also become the most popular museum in the United States.

In addition to the collection, the couple also contributed heavily to helping build the National Gallery's famous East Wing and even brought in architect I.M. Pei to design it, and Mrs. Mellon was personally involved in the design.

After contacting Mrs. Mellon, I.M. Pei was outspoken in his praise: "Mrs. Mellon is both professional and has very good aesthetic intuition, which is rare even among the best architects."

The East Wing of the National Gallery of Art

By 1966, Mrs. Mellon had also joined her husband in promoting the establishment of the Yale University Art Center and gifted much of the collection to Yale University, making it the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside of the United Kingdom.

The collection contains more than 2,000 paintings, 100 sculptures, and 20,000 drawings and watercolors from the Middle Ages to contemporary times. Outstanding works of famous masters such as Gainsborough and Holbein are listed among them.

In the 103 years of Rachel Lambert Mellon's life, she has always been a lover of nature and art, and she has always maintained an unassuming attitude towards life. Whether it is jewelry or art, for her, it is somehow the same as the flowers and plants she cultivates.

These precious things are not tools to show off their wealth and status, but indeed bring the enjoyment of beauty and pure joy of life, and she, too, never hesitates to share this joy with others.

Madame Mellon was interviewed only three times in her life. Most of her art and jewelry collections were eventually donated to various museums and galleries.

Her life, perhaps like the garden she planted at Oak Springs Estate, was peaceful, soft, and always fragrant.