This text is part of the special book Plaisirs
At the Reford Gardens, a new exhibition allows you to get to know the woman who created this haven of beauty: Elsie Reford.
She had panache, a benefit linked to her membership of the Anglo-Montreal elite. She had audacity, but owed it only to herself. Her name was Elsie Reford, and she bequeathed to us the Reford Gardens, which she created in Grand-Métis, in Gaspésie, between 1926 and 1958. A National Historic Site of Canada and a heritage site of Quebec, the estate welcomes crowds every summer.
At the helm of the Gardens, historian Alexander Reford wanted to pay tribute to his grandmother on the occasion of her 150e birthday. In the wake of the celebrations that began last year, the great-grandson launched a beautiful book a few weeks ago at Éditions Umamium: Elsie Reford – 150 Passion Items. He also announced the holding, in June, of a new exhibition at the Villa Estevan, in the heart of the Gardens: Fashionable. Elsie Reford and fashion. Like the work and the permanent exhibition Elsie seen by…it will reconstruct the thread of a life rich in all respects.
“Elsie Reford’s clothes allow you to know her better. They highlight his interest in politics and nature, as well as his fascination with the 18e century and its art of living,” says Philippe Denis, lecturer and researcher in fashion heritage at ESG UQAM’s École supérieure de la mode and guest museologist at Les Jardins.
Clothes and politics? Of course… Attached as she was to the British Empire, Elsie Reford encouraged English trade. “The ostrich feathers worn by several of his hats at the start of the 20e century correspond to its bias in favor of the economic war that England and France were waging at the time regarding the breeding of these birds for the production of feathers and their trade”, argues Mr. Denis .
A woman and her time
Born in 1872 in Perth, Ontario, Elsie Meighen arrived in Montreal with her family around the age of 10. Eight years later, she went to Paris, Vienna and Dresden to study the leisure arts, ie diction, dance and other disciplines supposed to make her a “woman of the world”. An accomplished violinist, she gave concerts, then she married, at the age of 22, the man who would become the youngest president of the Montreal Board of Trade, Robert W. Reford.
To her duty as a mother — she would have two sons — were added philanthropic activities related to women’s health, a social life that served her causes and the co-founding of the Canadian Women’s Club of Montreal. Her mentor was Governor General Lord Gray and received at her home on rue Drummond the personalities of her time, including a certain Henri Bourassa, founder of this newspaper. Their diametrically opposed points of view on the Empire were to give rise to heated exchanges, because, we learn in the fine book, following an evening, Mr. Bourassa wrote, in his thank you note dated 1912: “I couldn’t be more confused about my outbursts of fiery verbosity. Nevertheless, I feel that I had to speak frankly. »
His summers, Mme Reford spent them in the fishing camp that his uncle, George Stephen, founder of the Canadian Pacific Railway, made available to him: Villa Estevan. She will precisely capture 1052 salmon in 36 years of fishing in the Mitis River and will initiate herself, as an autodidact, in horticulture. Today, the gardens she has created are made up of some 3,000 species and varieties of plants, including the Himalayan blue poppy for which the place is famous.
According to Mr. Reford, his great-grandmother was clearly a passionate woman. “The projects she has undertaken have all, without exception, been masterfully executed from start to finish,” he says. The development of her gardens in Grand-Métis is an excellent example of the degree of rigor she imposed on herself. »
Testifying to another of his passions, fashion, the new exhibition brings together around twenty pieces of clothing dating from 1892, the year of his marriage, until the 1950s, to which are added several accessories and objects. “Some are particularly exceptional because of their materials, their styles or their origins,” underlines Mr. Denis.
Roots at the International Garden Festival
The garden on the plate
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