Johann Zoffany (1733-1810) paints families in English Gardens & Parks

Johann Zoffany (German-born English artist, 1733-1810) The Auriol and Dashwood Families

Johann Zoffany (German-born English artist, 1733-1810) The children of Ferdinand of Parma (Louis, Carolina, Maria Antonia and Carlotta) on the Garden Terrace

Johann Zoffany (German-born English artist, 1733-1810) The Colmore Family

Johann Zoffany (German-born English artist, 1733-1810) Queen Charlotte with her Children and Brothers

Circle of Johann Zoffany (German-born English artist, 1733-1810) Portrait of the Sayer Family

Johann Zoffany (German-born English artist, 1733-1810) Sir Elijah and Lady Impey and Their Three Children

Johann Zoffany (German-born English artist, 1733-1810) George III, Queen Charlotte and their 6 eldest children on the Garden Terrace

1780 Johann Zoffany (German-born English painter, 1733-1810) Henry and Mary Styleman

Johann Zoffany (German-born English painter, 1733-1810) The Drummond Family

Johann Zoffany (German-born English painter, 1733-1810) The Lavie Children, ca. 1770

Johann Zoffany (German-born English painter, 1733-1810) The Sharp Family (1779–81)

 1763 Johann Zoffany (German-born English painter, 1733-1810) The Daughters of John 3rd Earl of Bute

1763 Johann Zoffany (German-born English painter, 1733-1810) The Mathew Family at Felix Hall, Kelvedon, Essex

 1763 Johann Zoffany (German-born English painter, 1733-1810) The Sons of John 3rd Earl of Bute

 1766 Johann Zoffany (German-born English painter, 1733-1810) The Woodley Family

 1767 Johann Zoffany (German-born English painter, 1733-1810) The Family of William Young

 1769 Johann Zoffany (German-born English painter, 1733-1810) The Bradshaw Family

Johann Joseph Zoffany (German-born artist, 1733-1810) David Garrick and his Wife 

1730 Ladymead House & Gardens, Walcot, Bath

Ladymead House & Gardens, Walcot, Bath 1730

Images of Bath before the city’s Georgian heyday are rare. This picture was painted at around the same time that John Wood was beginning work on Queen Square, the 1st phase of his building plan for the city. Buildings like Ladymead House were about to become a rarity in fashionable, mid-18C Bath.

1756 Garden Folly - Actor David Garrick's (1717-1779) Temple to Shakespeare

Johann Joseph Zoffany (German-born artist, 1733-1810) David Garrick & his Wife by his Temple to Shakespeare at Hampton

Actor David Garrick's (1717-1779) Temple to Shakespeare is a garden folly erected in 1756, on the north bank of the River Thames at Hampton, London. It was built by Garrick to honor playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616), whose plays Garrick performed to acclaim throughout his career. During his lifetime Garrick used it to house his extensive collection of Shakespearean memorabilia to entertain his family & guests.

View of the Seat of the late David Garrick Esqr. at Hampton, with the Temple of Shakespeare in the Garden from The Modern Universal British Traveller; or A New Complete, and Accurate Tour through England, Wales, Scotland, and the Neighbouring Islands. [London: J. Cooke] 1779. 

Garrick built the temple on land adjoining a villa, which he had bought in October 1754, to serve as his country retreat. The villa's riverside garden was separated from the main property by a road, so Garrick commissioned an elaborate grotto-tunnel under the road, illuminated by 500 lanterns, to allow him & his guests private access to the lawn from the house.

On 4 August 1755, his writer neighbor Horace Walpole (original name Horatio Walpole (1717-1797),  wrote to a friend: "I have contracted a sort of intimacy with Garrick, who is my neighbour...He is building a graceful temple to Shakespeare: I offered him this motto: Quod spiro et placeo, si placeo tuum est."  A year later, Walpole wrote in another letter: "He has built a temple to his master Shakespear [sic], and I am going to adorn the outside, since his modesty would not let me decorate it within."  Walpole donated a grove of Italian cypresses to plant in the garden.

Hampton House in Middlesex, the Seat of Mr Garrick after Metz, (1783) by John Walker, Exhibited Royal Academy 1796-1800.

The temple was widely admired in its time; & its idyllic prospect so moved Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), that he gushed to Garrick: "Ah, David, it is the leaving of such places that makes a deathbed so terrible."

One of Garrick's guests, the letter-writer Mary Granville Delany (1700-1788), described the scene at one such entertainment in a letter of 1770: "We had an excellent dinner nicely served, and then went over directly into the garden – a piece of irregular ground sloping down to the Thames, very well laid out, and planted for shade and shelter; and an opening to the river which appears beautiful from that spot, and from Shakespeare's Temple at the end of the Improvement, where we drank tea, and where there is a very fine statue of Shakespeare in white marble, and a great chair with a large carved frame, that was Shakespeare's own chair, made for him on some particular occasion, with a medallion fixed in the back. Many were the relics we saw of the favourite poet."

Daylesford View of the Seat of the late David Garrick Esqr. at Hampton

In August 1774, the temple & gardens were the centrerpiece of Garrick's elaborate silver jubilee celebrations to celebrate 25 years of marriage. The London Chronicle reported: "Last night Mr Garrick gave a splendid entertainment or Fete Champetre at his gardens at Hampton. Signior Torre conducted a most brilliant fire-work; an elegant concert of music was performed; and the company, which consisted of a great number of Nobility and Gentry, expressed the utmost satisfaction on the occasion. The temple of Shakespeare, and gardens, were illuminated with 6000 lamps, and the forge of Vulcan made a splendid appearance."

 Engraved print from Beauties of England & Wales by John John Britton (1771-1857) and E. W. Brayley.

Garrick also opened the temple & garden to the public for special occasions. Each May Day, seated on the chair accompanied by his wife, he would give the poor children of Hampton money & cakes. A woman who attended one such May Day event later recalled: "When I was called up, I took my six [children] into the Temple, where Mr Garrick was sitting by the fine bust with great cakes before him; he took down all their names, and then gave a shilling and a piece of plum-cake to every individual one; not even leaving out poor babes in their mothers' arms."

Garden Capriccio 18C

Pietro Paltronieri (Italian painter, 1673–1741)  Capriccio with Figures in a Garden

1720s-30s English 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.  

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684-1734) Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, West Aspect 1730

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 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) Idealized View of Chirk Castle

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 Detail

Families In Gardens & Parks by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)

 Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Mr and Mrs Carter, c.1747–8

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Conversation in a Park - Self Portrait with his wife Margaret 1746

 Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)  Mr. and Mrs. Andrews 1749

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Lady Lloyd & her son Richard 1746

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Sarah Kirby and John Joshua Kirby c1751-1752

 Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Unknown Couple

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) The John Gravenor Family 1754

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)  Self-portrait with his wife and daughter, 1748

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Heneage Lloyd & his sister Lucy

1700s Music & Families in Gardens by Philippe Mercier (French-born artist, 1689-1760)

Philippe Mercier (French artist, 1689-1760) Prince of Wales and his sisters 1733 making music in the garden

Philippe Mercier (French artist, 1689-1760) The Schultz Family and their Friends on a Garden Terrace 1725