Dutch garden architect and botanist.
Leonard springer was the son of romantic Dutch city and landscape painter Cornelis Springer (25 May 1817 – 20 February 1891) and Geertruij ten Cate (7 Dec 1819 – 8 April 1902). From his father and uncles he learned the art of landscape painting, but instead of drawing landscapes that already existed, he would become a major landscape architect. He not only designed them, but also liked to breed and to plant the trees. So he became a collector of trees in his herbarium.
Springer visited the boarding school of H.G. Roodhuyzen from age ten. As a child he liked to wander in the nature to study the vegetation. From 1871 to 1874 he studied horticulture at the Linnaeus school in de Watergraafsmeer. As there was no education in his favourite field (study of trees and gardens) he travelled abroad to study landscapes and collect trees. In 1875 he worked for a Amsterdam plant nursery, for their clients he could design Amsterdam city gardens. In February 1878 he went to Paris in the hope to become a garden architect. It was a deception and he returned few months later back. He started to subscribe on Dutch contests for design of landscape gardens, cemeteries and so on. He won several contests like that for the Rijsterborgherpark (Deventer 1887), the Nieuwe Oosterbegraafplaats (A’dam, 1889) and the Oosterpark (A’dam, 1891). He then stayed with his parents in Hilversum.
On 17 September 1891 he married Margaretha Helena van Doorn (b.1973) at Nieuwer-Amstel. They got 2 daughters and lived in Haarlem. He was 44 years member of the the Haarlem Mennonite church council. As he got less commissions for garden design, he in 1897 accepted lectureship at the Hoogere Land-, Tuin- en Boschbouwschool, now University, in Wageningen. He stayed there till 1900 and designed the garden and arboretum of Wageningen.
Between 1900 and 1920 he advised the city of Haarlem. In 1924 he co-founded the Nederlandsche Dendrologische Vereeniging. He wrote many articles about art history and dendrology (study of wooded plants). In 1936 he donated his dendrologic herbarium to the University of Wageningen. He was also a great collector of books on dendrology and donated The Springer Library (1630-1940) in 1940 to Wageningen University. Leonard Springer worked on some 900 gardens and was without doubt first in field in Dutch garden architecture.
He died at Haarlem on 28 September 1940.
Link to Dutch Wikipedia