LGP 2024-2025 Biennial Report-digital - Flipbook - Page 21
East Asian philosophy and design principles were
of great interest to Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, her
family, and peers. Abby pursued a personal course
of study through travel, reading, and discussion
on the relevance of these principles to her life in
the West. Mount Desert Island in particular struck
Abby and her generation as a landscape that, in its
natural state, uncannily paralleled designed East
Asian landscapes.
Seal Harbror, Maine
October 12th, 1926 letter from A.A.R. to her sister Lucy
DEAREST LUCY,
“John and I are having a wonderful time - it is gorgeous
here. I wish that you could see the colors. The blueberries have turned the most heavenly shade of Chinese
Red [vermillion] you have ever seen.”
Sister A. A. R.
Whether in the bonsai-like pitch pines growing out of picturesque granite outcroppings by the sea or the color of
blueberry leaves in autumn (that resembled a specific red pigment prevalent in China), the island’s landscape was
an irresistible context in which to celebrate the era’s developing conversation between East and West.
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