Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1869-1944) was one of England's most prominent and inventive architects working in a traditional manner during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Edwin Landseer Lutyens was born on March 29, 1869, in London, England, the 11th of 14 children of an army captain who retired from service to study art with the English animal painter Edwin Landseer, after whom the young Lutyens was named. As a boy he wandered the Surrey countryside where he developed an appreciation for the local crafts traditions and a special admiration for the complex interlocking shapes of the vernacular cottages and barns found in the region.

At age 16 Lutyens attended the South Kensington School of design to study architecture. He then joined the office of Ernst George (1839-1922), a talented pupil of Norman Shaw (1831-1912). The influence of Shaw, Philip Webb (1831-1915), and the English Arts and Crafts Movement became the foundation...