Before social media or even the internet, Tasha Tudor embodied the cottagecore aesthetic now finding adherents on TikTok and Instagram.
The Marlboro, Vt., artist and homesteader died in 2008, leaving behind 75 years’ worth of illustrations that have appeared in more than 100 books, most of them children’s books. Behind her illustrations was a lifestyle that reflected the charm of rural simplicity.
That is why Tudor is now being hailed online as the original pioneer of the cottagecore aesthetic — a trend that romanticizes rural charm and a self-sufficient lifestyle. More than 20 million videos featuring her have been posted on TikTok alone, with many sharing her illustrations and expressing a desire for a life like hers in the captions. She also regularly appears in Instagram content.
Her resurgence among a younger online audience speaks to a generational yearning for escape from the fast-paced, hyper-digital modern world. Tudor’s life — filled with gardening, cooking and candle making — offers a counterpoint to the pressures of burnout culture.
For many, she embodies the cottagecore ethos of a slower, more intentional way of living. In an era defined by climate anxiety, younger people find inspiration in her ability to romanticize the everyday and create beauty from the ordinary.
In an interview, her granddaughter-in-law said Tudor would undoubtedly have appreciated her social media stardom. “She loved sharing her ideas. Her illustrations recorded her daily life. I joke that Tasha was the original lifestyle blogger,” said Amy Tudor.
The Vermont artist’s work also continues to resonate beyond the online realm.
While Vermont — her longtime home — lacks a dedicated museum, Tudor’s artistry enjoys remarkable acclaim in Japan, with the Tasha Tudor Museum in Yamanashi Prefecture, which opens seasonally.
In addition to the permanent museum, a traveling exhibit opened for two weeks in Tokyo, with 10,000 attendees. The exhibit will move to the Niigata Prefectural Botanical Garden from mid-March to May.
Amy Tudor said her popularity in Japan started with a single magazine article.
Photographer Richard W. Brown, who took thousands of images of Tasha Tudor and her garden, said: “I’ve probably done 25 books on her in Japan because she’s practically a deity there.”
Brown, who also published three books on Tudor in the U.S. and penned numerous magazine articles, remembered the first time he met her. An American culture magazine had asked him to take photos of her greenhouse.
“When I drove there, I couldn’t believe it. The world she created there was like getting out of a time capsule back 100 years,” Brown said.
Her garden was huge, he recalled, and filled with fruit trees and flowers like poppies, foxgloves, peonies and daffodils.
In her modest Cape Cod-style house with wide plank flooring and stenciled patterns over its small windows, Tudor’s living area was a reflection of her simple way of living. The space featured an iron cook stove, pink tea sets, a red tablecloth and antique handcrafted furnishings.
Before she married Tudor’s grandson Winslow, Amy Tudor spent a summer working as a garden apprentice for Tasha Tudor. She recalled Tudor inviting her up for a tea party.
“It was like visiting a museum that was still alive,” she said. “Candles were lit all the time, even during the summer.”
Troy Mathers, a close friend of the Tudor family, also has evocative memories of visiting Tasha Tudor for several summers at her Vermont home.
“Her staircase has been traveled on so many times. You could see the traffic of the feet on the board,” Mathers said.
In the 1980s, Tudor had an exhibition at the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana — Mathers’ home state. Mathers’ mother, who sold antique clothing, volunteered at the exhibition, and she and Tudor became friends. The two women later became business partners, which led to The Jenny Wren press, a business that sold Tudor’s artwork, postcards and books that she illustrated.
During Mathers’ summer visits, Tudor painted watercolor portraits of him. “There was a charcoal one of me. I had to sit there forever. I was 8 years old,” Mathers said.
Barefoot and dressed in 1830s style clothing, she spun wool and made candles, Mathers said. “She loved wearing dresses. We would go out to eat, and she was just so comfortable wearing these clothes,” he said.
Mathers remembered Tasha Tudor was very particular about gardening and living a preindustrial way of life. “She was hardcore frugal. She ate the eggs from her chickens and drank the milk from her goats,” Mathers said. “She didn’t try to own all the gadgets.”
He remembered driving her endless driveway and opening the car doors to the sound of her geese. Tudor had around 20 animals at any given time — four goats, corgis, two cats, two African grey parrots and some canaries and chickens.
“When you’d sit down for dinner, she would pretend to serve this parrot, and he played the role. He knew what was up,” Mathers said. “She definitely had a sense of humor.”
Amy Tudor said her grandmother-in-law would tell her she felt more herself with long patterned dresses with long sleeves, adding wool under her dress for winter. “She had her antique dress collection but later they were custom made,” she said.
Winslow Tudor inherited his grandmother’s estate after her death, and Amy Tudor founded the Tasha Tudor Society, a nonprofit focused on building community and preserving as much of her life and artwork as possible. The society also publishes magazine-style journals featuring contributions from fans sharing letters, photographs and objects Tudor owned.
Amy Tudor and her husband said they feel the pressure to preserve Tudor’s house. They don’t want to turn it into a museum but rather a type of retreat where people can experience the quiet space and “open up to flowers and birds,” Amy Tudor said. Tours of the Tudor homestead continued until 2019 when the pandemic brought them to a close.
While many of Tasha Tudor’s admirers are now scattered across Japan or connect with her legacy through social media, Brown had the privilege of experiencing it firsthand.
He recalled her once telling him she was convinced she had a former life and somehow was connected to the 1830s.
“She said often to me, ‘When I die, I’m going right back to the 1830s,’” he said.