17C Discovering a Garden in a Painting Background

Anonymous Artist - Spring with Flowers & a Garden in the Background. Madrid, Museo del Prado. 1601-1650

Spring & "springtime" refer to the ecological, environmental season, and also to ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection & regrowth.

Sharing the Autumn Harvest - 1700s Local Food Markets by Flemish Pieter Angillis 1685-1734

Pieter Angillis (Flemish, 1685-1734) At the Marketplace

Pieter Angillis (Flemish, 1685-1734) Eine elegante Gesellschaft bei einem Gemüseverkäufer 1734

Pieter Angillis (Flemish, 1685-1734) The Vegetable Seller detail 1725

Pieter Angillis (Flemish, 1685-1734) Elegant Figures in a Market Square

Pieter Angillis (Flemish, 1685-1734) Fruit and Vegetable Market

Pieter Angillis (Flemish, 1685-1734) or his circle, Poultry Vendors

Pieter Angillis (Flemish, 1685-1734) The Vegetable Seller

Pieter Angillis (Flemish, 1685-1734) Vegetable Seller c 1726

Pieter Angliss Market at Coven Garden 1762

1700s Foods at Markets & in Kitchens

Adriaan de Lelie (Dutch artist, 1755-1820)

Jan Antoon Garemijn (Dutch painter, 1712-1799) The Market in Bruges 1778

Johann Zoffany (German-born English painter, 1733-1810) Florentine Fruit Stand

John Atkinson (British artist, fl 1770-1775) British  Girl Bundling Asparagus 1771

John Atkinson (British artist, fl 1770-1775) Kitchen Scene

John S C Schaak (British artist, fl. Westminster 1761-1769) Tavern Interior 1762

Justus Juncker (Dutch artist, 1703-1767) In the Kitchen

Justus Juncker (Dutch artist, 1703-1767) The Maid in the Kitchen

Justus Juncker (Dutch artist, 1703-1767) Working in the Kitchen

Pehr Hilleström (Swedish artist, 1732-1816) A Lady at the Hearth

Molly Milton, the pretty oyster Woman Carington Bowles 1788

Unknown artist, Curds and Whey Seller c 1725-35

Sausage Woman at Covent Garden Robert Sayer 1772

Abraham van Strij (Dutch artist, 1753-1826) Cleaning up in the Kitchen

1758 Gardens & Grounds at Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire

1758 Reverend Richard Byron (British artist, 1724-1811) East View of Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, and the Great Garden

Garden - 1736 The sad story of Hornby Hall and Castle

1736 Arthur Devis (English artist, 1712-1787) Hornby Hall and Castle

In the garden can be seen a young couple, Thomas Bennison & Ann Dowbiggin, being presented with a bouquet by the estate gardener on the occasion of moving into their new house. Bennison was a Protestant & his wife Ann was a Catholic. Shortly after the picture was painted Bennison died, & his vast fortune passed to his 11 year old daughter Ann, who had been brought up as a Catholic. In 1752, Ann married John Fenwick of nearby Burrow Hall. Discovering that he was in dire financial straits, she legally passed over to him her fortune & the deeds of Hornby Hall. In a cruel twist of fate he died shortly afterwards, &, according to the law of Hanoverian England, the estate was successfully claimed by Thomas Fenwick, his Protestant brother. Only many years later did Ann Fenwick succeed in retrieving part of her fortune, in recognition of which she erected St Mary's Chapel, Hornby. Interestingly, only when the painting was recently restored were the figures of Ann's parents & estate gardener revealed, having been painted out 250 years ago by Thomas Fenwick who could not have wished to be reminded of his ill-gotten gains.

Arthur Devis is principally known as a painter of the "conversation piece," or informal portrait in domestic surroundings. This picture, however, was painted very early in his artistic career in the years immediately following his apprenticeship to the landscape painter Peter Tillemans (1684–1734), & shows Hornby Hall shortly after it was built in 1735.

Not exactly a garden Orangerie...

I am always scouring images to find garden designs & components. Today I came upon this engraving which seems to have little to do with a formal garden, although it does purport to be about an Orangerie as well as the "fatigues of planting."

The Orangerie; - or - the Dutch Cupid reposing after the fatigues of Planting  James Gillray, 1756-1815, engraver, Published by Hannah Humphrey, London, 1796

This British cartoon seems to be a commentary about William V, Prince of Orange, 1748-1806, who began to rule in 1766. The position of the Dutch during the American Revolution was one of neutrality; however, William V actually lead the pro-British faction within the government.  The French, led by General Charles Pichegru, ended William's reign in January 1795, when they invaded the Netherlands.  In 1795, William V fled the Netherlands for the safety of England.  James Gillray (British artist & engraver, 1756-1815) caricatured William's reported dalliances during his English exile, depicting him as an indolent Cupid with bags of money, surrounded by pregnant lovers. Here an apparently exhausted William V, Prince of Orange, rests reclining on a garden platform of grass & flowers while depending on a bag of money marked 24,000,000 ducats to maintain his position. In the foreground are a number of orange plants in pots with each orange bearing something of a genetic likeness of the prince. In the background are many seriously pregnant women, about to deliver their little orange plants,  including a milkmaid, a fishmonger, a house maid, & several farm women.

Johann Friedrich August Tischbein (1750-1812) William V, Prince of Orange-Nassau

1732 French Garden Scene

1732 Nicolas Lancret (French artist, 1690-1743) A Family in a Garden taking Coffee with some Children

1786 English Garden with garden-bench, greenhouse, urn, espaliered wall, & flower pots.

1786 Unknown artist. John Coakley Lettsom (1733–1810), with His Family, in the Garden of Grove Hill, Camberwell.

This 1786 painting of the Lettsom family offers much to explore in 18C garden developments in England & how those translated across the Atlantic to early American gardens.  The painting is notable for its close-up images of a garden bench, greenhouse, urn, espaliered wall, & flower pots.

John Coakley Lettsom (1733–1810) was a Quaker & a well known figure of the English Enlightenment, the movement in the 18C towards freedom of thought & equality of rights for all mankind. Born in the Virgin Islands, he sailed to Britain & was apprenticed as a surgeon-apothecary in Yorkshire.  After returning to the West Indies to free the slaves he had inherited, he came back to Britain, became a physician, & acquired immense wealth through his medical practice catering toward many rich & noble patients. He used his wealth in numerous philanthropic projects, such as the Aldersgate Street Dispensary, which gave free medical care & soup kitchens, & the Royal Humane Society, which was concerned with saving people from drowning. He also promoted charity through essays on slum housing, alcohol abuse, & the problems of the blind. As an apothecary, he was also a keen gardener, & the painting shows him in the garden of his house in Camberwell, with his wife & 5 of his children. 

1720-30 Welch Gardens

1720 Unknown artist, Newton House, Llandeilo, from the North Dinefwr Park and Castle

1730 Unknown artist, Newton House, Llandeilo, from the East Dinefwr Park and Castle

1700s Garden in Dogpole, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

1700s John Bowen d 1773 A Formal Garden in Dogpole, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

1710 Greater London Garden

Studio of Marco Ricci (Venetian artist, 1676-1730) Cascade, Gardens Bushy Park, a Baroque-style garden of pools, cascades, basins & a canal, that together originally extended almost 1km across the northern part of Bushy Park. The Water Gardens boast a number of grottoes, 4 grand pools, & a cascade.

In 1729, the garden designer, Stephen Switzer, wrote: "Without doubt, one of the best works of that kind in England, and perhaps as good as any else where."  

These gardens were built for Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, who lived at Upper Lodge and was keeper of Bushy Park from 1709-1715. He was a career politician who created the joint stock company that was to become the Bank of England. He was a friend of Sir Isaac Newton and part of a circle of writers that included John Dryden and William Congreve.   

Halifax diverted the Longford River into the upper pond, which fed the cascade and the other water features. The Longford River is an artificial waterway, created for King Charles l in 1638-9 to bring water from The River Colne at Longford to Hampton Court. 

Samuel Molyneux, noted in 1714, about the Cascade,  "Not very high but little and yet beautifully dispos'd so as to fall between two fine pieces of Grotto Work where are places left for Paintings representing two Caves in which the little walks round the Basin of the Cascade and the Paintings are removable so as to be taken away in Winter." 

Stephen Switzer wrote about the Water Gardens in 1729, "This very handsome rural Design is supply'd by a Branch of the River Colne; which, though not affording a perpetual Current, yet is never wanting to give Spectators a peculiar Pleasure. The design is so well known, that I need not expatiate or enlarge upon it; but is, however, of so rude an' rustick a Manner that it may well serve as a Patten or Model to any that shall be disposed to make use of Water Works." 

1783 Gardener

1783  'L'Emile', in 'Oeuvres choisies de Jean Jacques Rousseau' (London c1783) Emmanuel de Ghendt (Print made by) Clément Pierre Marillier (After)

1750-60s Balthasar Nebot (1700-1770) views the Water Gardens at Studley Royal, Yorkshire

1760 Balthasar Nebot (Spanish-born British artist, 1700-1770) Studley Royal View of the Lake and Cascade

 1750s Balthasar Nebot (Spanish-born British artist, 1700-1770) View of Fountains Abbey

 1758-62  Balthasar Nebot (Spanish-born British artist, 1700-1770) Print of one of four views of the water garden at Studley Royal, Yorkshire, by A. Walker after Balthazar Nebot

 1758-62 Balthasar Nebot (Spanish-born British artist, 1700-1770) Print of one of four views of the water garden at Studley Royal, Yorkshire, by A. Walker after Balthazar Nebot

  1758-62 Balthasar Nebot (Spanish-born British artist, 1700-1770) Print of one of four views of the water garden at Studley Royal, Yorkshire, by A. Walker after Balthazar Nebot

 1758-62 Balthasar Nebot (Spanish-born British artist, 1700-1770) Print of one of four views of the water garden at Studley Royal, Yorkshire, by A. Walker after Balthazar Nebot

Read articles on Studley Royal by The National Trust's brilliant Emile de Bruijn here and here.  I believe the four views above are for sale as prints from The National Trust.

1734 Gardens at Hanbury Hall

1734 John Wootton (British artist, 1682–1764) Bowater Vernon (1683–1735), with Hanbury Hall and Its Formal Garden

1730 Dutch Garden

1730 Johann Baptiste Bouttats (Belgian artist, 1680-1743) Dutch Mansion with Garden

1749 The Amphitheatre at Claremont

1749 Unknown Artist The Amphitheatre at Claremont

1720s-30s English houses & landscapes by Peter Tillemans (1684–1734)

  Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) A View of the Garden and Main Parterre of Winchendon House, Buckinghamshire, from the East, with Figures in the Foreground

Peter Tillemans (c. 1684-1734) was a Flemish painter, best known for his works on sporting & topographical subjects. Tillemans was born in Antwerp, the son of a diamond-cutter, & studied painting there.  He was brother-in-law to fellow artist Peter Casteels (1684-1749); & in 1708 the two young men were brought over to England by a dealer named Turner to copy Old Master paintings.  By 1711, he had joined Godfrey Kneller's (1646-1723) new Great Queen Street Academy of painting as a founding member, where Tillemans declared his speciality as 'landskip'.  He later joined the Society of St Luke (and was its Steward, 1725). Tillemans lived chiefly in Westminster, but traveled to execute commissions.  By 1715, he had acquired his most faithful patron, Dr Cox Macro of Suffolk. In his country landscapes with gardens paintings, the houses often stand in a countryside brought to life by animals & hunting scenes.  He was employed with Joseph Goupy to paint a series of scenes for the opera-house in the Haymarket. In 1719, he was commissioned by the antiquary John Bridges (1666-1724) to make about 500 drawings for the History of Northamptonshire.   These drawings were all executed in Indian ink, for which Bridges gave him a guinea a day & the run of his house.  Tillemans resided for some years at Richmond in Surrey, where is brother-in-law lived.  He also stayed at the home of his patron Dr. Cox Macro of Norton Haugh in Suffolk, where he died on 5 Dec. 1734.

 Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) London from Greenwich Park

 Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) Panoramic view of Chatsworth House and Park

  Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) Prospect Of Ashburnham Place Sussex

 Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) The View from One-Tree Hill in Greenwich Park

 Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) View of Chatsworth House and Park

   Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) View of Chirk Castle from the North

  Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) A View of Uppark

  Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) East View of Newsterad Abbey, Nottinghamshire

 Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) A View of the Downs near Uppark including a view of the riding hill summerhouse

 Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) Little Haugh Hall, Suffolk

  Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) River Thames

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) View of Knowsley Park from the Riding Hill Summer House, looking towards Prescot