Young Adulthood
During the 1860s and 1870s, she pursued an active social and creative life. With her younger brother, Herbert, who was a military engineer and civil servant, as well as a co-founder of the Bach Choir, she attended concerts and exhibitions, she made many friends in intellectual and artistic circles, including GF Watts, Hercules Brabazon and William Morris (of Arts and Crafts fame). Her travels to the Levant, Algeria and Europe (here is her painting of Parma, Italy) brought new stimuli. Wherever she went, she observed and tried new techniques: singing, painting, carving, embroidery, gilding, metal work and photography. In addition, she became a keen plant collector, noting all the new plants and gardens that she saw.
When, in 1868, the Jekylls moved from Bramley to Wargrave (here is her painting of Wargrave) in Berkshire, 40 miles west of London, Gertrude had her first chance to focus on the decoration of a home and the creation of a garden. She also began to exhibit her paintings, embroidery and craft work. Admiring neighbours and acquaintances gave her commissions for decorating or furnishing their homes…a task which combined her skills as an artist with the craftmanship that she learned in her father’s workshop. Among her clients were several people of influence and distinction, such as the Duke of Westminster, the musician Jaques Blumenthal and the artists Frederic Leighton and Hercules Brabazon.
Gradually, Gertrude’s original ambitions as a painter fell away, particularly as she suffered from poor eyesight; thereafter, her artistic talent and creative drive were primarily channelled towards garden design, though she continued to draw and paint for the rest of her life.
This, then, was Gertrude’s Victorian youth. Although she grew up in tthe 19th century, her unusual personality had been allowed to flourish outside the conventional strait jacket of the time, so that she could develop her own career, with the encouragement of forward-looking parents.