Capability Brown, Royal Gardener: the Business of Place-Making in Northern Europe
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Capability Brown, Royal Gardener Royal Brown, Capability Lancelot “Capability” Brown was one of the most influential landscape designers of the eighteenth- Europe in Northern Business of Place-Making The century at a time when Britain was changing radically from an agrarian to an industrial and colonial nation, whilst Europe was periodically convulsed by war and revolution. The extent and nature of his influence are, however, fiercely debated. Brown worked at hundreds of important sites across England and his name became synony- mous with the “English Garden” style which was copied across Northern Europe and entranced Catherine the Capability Great, who remodelled her landscapes in St Petersburg to reflect the new style. He was fêted in his time, and recognised by the Crown, but Brown’s style was readily copied over his later life and particularly after his death. BROWN This book eloquently demonstrates that Capability Brown was first and foremost a place-maker and business man, but that in order to get a full understanding of his Royal Gardener importance we must consider his role as a royal gardener who had an impact both at home and in continental Europe. This volume brings together a group of international The Business of Place‑Making experts who have collaborated to paint one of the most vivid and fascinating accounts of his life, times and importance as a royal gardener in the eighteenth century. in Northern Europe Lucy Worsley Chief Curator, Historic Royal Palaces & BBC presenter Arguably, this ubiquity led to the denigration of his achievements and even his character, particularly by the agents of the Picturesque. The lack of any personal primary material from Brown - forcing scholars to rely on his landscapes, contracts and bank accounts - has hindered attempts to provide a rounded and credible account of the man and his works. However, by exploring his team of associates and his role as Royal Gardener, new light can be thrown on the man, his landscapes and his landscape legacy. Bringing together a number of perspectives from across Northern Europe, Capability Brown, Royal Gardener explores the lasting international impact of Brown. With Brown’s position as Royal Gardener at its heart, this book explores for the first time his business methods, working methods and European influence. It assesses how, crucially, Brown’s work practices placed him within the world of nurserymen and landscape designers, and how his business practices and long term relationships (editors) Woudstra & Finch with draughtsmen and designers allowed him to manage a huge number of projects and a substantial financial turnover. This, in turn, allowed him to work in a way that promoted and advanced his style of landscape. Edited by Professor Jonathan Finch (University of York) and Dr Jan Woudstra (University of Sheffield), and with a varied range of engaging contributors drawn internationally from archaeology, art history, history and landscape architecture, Capability Brown, Royal Gardener weaves together strands from across a broad range of disciplinary interests. It makes an important contribution to the scholarly discussion of Brown’s work, the work of his collab- orators, and legacy in the UK and across Northern Europe. Relevant to students and academics at all levels, this volume throws new light on Capability Brown and his impact on the business of place-making in Northern Europe. Edited by Jonathan Finch & Jan Woudstra Capability Brown, Royal Gardener: The Business of Place-Making in Northern Europe Edited by Jonathan Finch & Jan Woudstra Published by White Rose University Press (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York) University of York, Heslington, York, UK, YO10 5DD https://universitypress.whiterose.ac.uk Capability Brown, Royal Gardener: The Business of Place-Making in Northern Europe Text © The Authors 2020 First published 2020 Cover Illustration: Harewood House from the south, J.M.W. Turner, 1798. Reproduced by courtesy of the Harewood House Trust. Cover designed by Tom Grady, WRUP ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-912482-24-5 ISBN (PDF): 978-1-912482-25-2 ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-912482-26-9 ISBN (MOBI): 978-1-912482-27-6 DOI (volume): https://doi.org/10.22599/CapabilityBrown Reuse statement: Apart from exceptions, where specific copyright statements are given, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, California, 94042, USA. This licence allows for sharing and adapt- ing any part of the work for personal and non-commercial use, providing author attribution is clearly stated. Example citation: Finch, J. and Woudstra, J. (Eds.), 2020. Capability Brown, Royal Gardener: The business of place-making in Northern Europe. York: White Rose University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22599 /CapabilityBrown. CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 To access this work freely online via the White Rose University Press website, please scan this QR code or visit https://doi.org/10.22599/CapabilityBrown. Contents Acknowledgements v Author Biographies vii Chapter 1: Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown: An Eighteenth-Century Life Jonathan Finch and Jan Woudstra 1 Chapter 2: Lancelot Brown, His Majesty’s Chief Gardener at Hampton Court David Jacques 17 Chapter 3: John Spyers – Lancelot Brown’s Surveyor at Hampton Court Sebastian Edwards 33 Chapter 4: Seeing an Eden from a Desert: Topographical Views of Kew and Richmond Gardens in the 1760s Matthew Storey 49 Chapter 5: The Brown Business Tom Williamson 61 Chapter 6: Place-Making: Capability Brown and the Landscaping of Harewood House, West Yorkshire Jonathan Finch 75 Chapter 7: Lancelot Brown’s Legacy of Landscape Practice: Samuel Lapidge ‘Who Knows My Accounts and the Nature of Them’ Jan Woudstra 89 Chapter 8: Nathaniel Richmond (c. 1719–84), ‘scholar of Brown’? David Brown 105 Chapter 9: The Greenings of Brentford End, Royal Gardeners Val Bott 119 Chapter 10: ‘Chaises, grotto, fishing, all in perfection’: The Social Context of Brown’s Landscape Designs Kate Felus 137 Chapter 11: The English Garden in Germany: Some Late Eighteenth-Century Concepts of the Landscape Garden Michael Rohde 151 Chapter 12: Lancelot Brown and the Notion of the Landscape Garden in the Netherlands: Illustrated with Het Loo Palace Jan Woudstra and Willem Zieleman 165 Chapter 13: Brown Invisible in France? The French Perception and Reception of Eighteenth-Century British Gardens Laurent Châtel and Monique Mosser 181 Chapter 14: Capability Brown, Royal Gardener and Placemaker in Northern Europe Jan Woudstra and Jonathan Finch 199 Select Bibliography 205 Index 215 Acknowledgements The editors would like to thank a number of people and institutions without whom this volume would not have been possible. Historic Royal Palaces hosted and co-organised the conference ‘Capability Brown Royal Gardener – the Man and His Business: Past, Present and Future’ at Hampton Court in June 2016, and it was from the discussions around those papers that this volume emerged as an idea. The University of Sheffield and the University of York were also involved in the organisation of the conference and have taken the volume forward with the help and support of the White Rose University Press. Tom Grady and Kate Petherbridge from WRUP deserve special thanks. David Jacques and Kate Felus also went beyond the role of contributors to help with the volume as a whole, and Jo Tozer copy-edited the draft into a consistent document. Any errors remain the responsibility of the editors. Author Biographies Val Bott MBE, independent museums consultant, based in Brentford, London, UK. David Brown, freelance landscape architect, based in Aldborough, Norfolk, UK. Laurent Châtel, Professor of British Art, Culture and Visual Studies at Lille Université, France. Sebastian Edwards, Deputy Chief Curator and Head of Collections, Historic Royal Palaces, based at Hampton Court Palace, Surrey, UK. Kate Felus, independent garden historian who runs a landscape consultancy business in West Sussex. Jonathan Finch, Professor of Archaeology at the Department of Archaeology, University of York, UK. David Jacques, landscape historian, conservationist and independent researcher, based in Staffordshire, UK. Monique Mosser, Historian of French Art, created a course in the conservation of historic gardens, École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Versailles, France, now emeritus. Michael Rohde, Director of Gardens, Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, Germany; Professor in Garden Conservation, Technical University Berlin, Germany. Matthew Storey, Curator (Collections), with Historic Royal Palaces, based at Hampton Court Palace, Surrey, UK. Tom Williamson, Professor of History, School of History, University of East Anglia, UK, where he leads the Landscape History Research Group. Jan Woudstra, Reader in Landscape History and Theory at the Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Sheffield, UK. Willem Zieleman, Head Gardener and Gardens Advisor of the Royal Palace of Het Loo, Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. Frontispiece (page vi): Capability Brown, Nathaniel Dance (later Sir Nathaniel Holland, Bt) oil on canvas, c. 1773. © National Portrait Gallery, London. Reproduced with permission. CHAPTER 1 Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown: An Eighteenth-Century Life Jonathan Finch and Jan Woudstra Early Years Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown