Th·lmpact of Brltlsh Culture

0 " the Development 0 f Prusslan N eo-C[asslclsm Alfred Hagemann Alfred Hagemann studied Histmy ofArt, Prehistoric-Archaeology and English at Martin­ Luther-Universitiit, Halle and Teclmische Universitiit, Berlin. His PhD focus is on the subject ofthe role ofpatrons in the development ofneo-classicism ill Berlin.

1 In the second half of the l 8 h century British art and culture became the dominant influence over all Europe. The life-style ofthe British country-house was copied and artists and patrons alike indulged in Anglomania. This article traces the British impact on the arts of two generations in the Prussian example and explores the underlying reasons behind the enthusiasm for British art and culture ofthe period. The Impact of British Culture The Impact of British Culrure act of propaganda from liberal circles in Europe. The progressive minds on the INTRODUCTION ~ontinent and.in Britain had set out to use Frederick, the young, genial and easily During the 1770s, Berlin hnd lost its place among the cultural centres ofcentral impressed heir to one of the larger thrones of Europe, to realize a dream: the Europe that it had occupied during the 1740s and 50s as a capital of . Yet reign ofa Patriot King! When his father Frederick William I lay mortally ill in within the span of only ten years, after the death of Frederick II in 1786, Berlin 1740, Voltaire mnde sure Frederick understood what enlightened minds in all of and Potsdam became a centre of a new style - Neo-Classicism - and artists like Europe expected. He wrote in a letter: Langhans and Schadow created icons ofneo-classicist architecture or sculpture. A philosopher reigns: ah! The ce11wry in which we are, In these few years, the foundations were laid for Berlin to become one of the wanted it without doubt a11d did 1101 dare to hope it; leading metropolises of international classicism in the 1820s and 30s. Without My pri11ce is worthy to rule the people. doubt this new style was British; it was the style of the Adams', of Wyatt and He will enlighten them! ' Holland, of Chippendale and Woogewood, and of . Yet why The reign ofa philosopher - a roi phi/osophe, a patriot king, that was the ideal of did princes, patrons and artists alike fall for the channs of British culture in the the English country-house set. Hating absolutism, yet wary of and mistrusting second halfofthe 18• century? the English parliarnentarianism, the enlightened elite hoped for the rule ofa king British art, unlike the French that had dominated for a century prior, who shared their values. Such a king would be powerful enough not to fear the was not a royal or courtly culture, but that of an educated and rich set of loss of power (the source of all cotTUption in democracy), yet be educated landowners, nobles and bourgeois alike. This country-house culture had enough not to misuse this power for his personal advantage.' And Frederick of developed as a culture of opposition, opposition of the newly formed upper Prussia was to be the first living example. The most demonstrative and most middle-class against all tendencies of absolutism. It was the culture of a "liberal universally understood sign ofFrederick· s convictions, after his accession to the 1 concept of the world." The core of the country-house opposition around Lord throne in 1740, were again the forms ofthe buildings he erected. The building of Burlington developed a complex system of liberal ideals, pointed against the the Opera House in Berlin (Fig. IA), in purest Palladian fonns, heralded the court and against absolutist France. reign ofa roi phi/osophe throughout Europe. The source for its fac;ade, as built Based on the theoretical writings of Pope, Borlingbroke and especially by Knobelsdorff from 1740 on, was the design for Wanstead/Essex, as Figure IA. Shaftesbury, the country-house culture formed a complex ideology in which the published in Colen Campbell's Vitrovius Brita11nic11s in 1714 as a prototypical arts played a central part. Shaftesbury linked the standard of artistic production expression ofthe Palladian villa (fig. I B).• in a society directly to the standards of the political system when he said . As Voltaire was the philosophical influence on Frederick, so was the "Nothing is so natural, so congenial to the liberal arts, as the reigning liberty and Italian Count Algarotti in matters of architecture and art. Like \bltaire, he was high spirit ofthe people." i an international figure and had spent some years in in the 1720s, where Thus, an-patronage and correct taste became directly linked to he became a devoted Burlingtonian. In his case we have direct proof of his freedom and prosperity1 and British art could become a language ofopposition detennination to make the Prussian court the continental branch of Chiswick for all those who felt suppressed by absolutism on the continent. The less and to fight back the French and Baroque influence. In a letter to Lord political freedom there was for them, the more the forms of British art, as such, Burlington of 1751 he writes: became means of expressing opposition. Thus, the courts of Crown-Princes, '"Now it rests with you to show Iris Majesty (Frederick JI) that you air! exiled Kings or powerless minor Gennan princes, became centres of in this country the restorer oftrue arr:hitect11re · ~ · Anglophiliaand liberal ideas. In consequence of the Palladian propaganda, a number of Palladian and Burlington designs were copied as fronts for Potsdam houses. Figure 1e . PRUSSIA AND FREDERICK THE GREAT Yet it is also true that Frederick, in his personal sphere, always Let us look at the Prussian example in more detail to understand how this preferred the light Rococo designs to Palladian grandeur. It seems that while he process developed. understood Palladinnism as the proper style for the official representative The young Frederick, later called the Great, heir to an economically buildings of the court and the state, in his private rooms he thought it justified to and culturally insignificant but militarily potent European power, had long enjoy a more relaxed style. This shows that he was far from being a puppet of his suffered under the strict rule of his father. Thus, Frederick was an easy target to Palladian counsellors and kept an independent mind. Anglophilia and indeed, England became in many respects the land of his After the Seven Years' Wai; Frederick's idealism and belief in the dreams. He expressed this in a poem from 1739, when he was still Crown­ concept of a roi phiosophe weakened and gave way to the bitter and cynical Prince: mood that dominated the last twenty years of his life.' In these last years, he 011 Freedom: Tlie free spirit, ho110111rtd i11 England !11 Lo11do11 at dropped all active interest in recent artistic developments. Palladian designs did home, i11 Berlin a terror(. .. ) not occur anymore and in preference he cultivated the Rococo ofthe 1740s up to He it is.from where comes all your gmat progress!(. .. ) I 0, home of the late 1770s; by that time an amazing anachronism. 11 freedom, over-happy land Where Art, spilit and tntth is bloomi11g ....• THE AGE OF FREDERICK WILLIAM II It is obvious from this poem that Frederick understood freedom, as expressed in The first wave of British influence on Prussia, deliberately directed by a group the British political system, in Shaftesbury 's sense as the basis for the progress ofinterested anglophiles, faded away together with the dream ofa patriot king. of the arts, sciences and the Enlightenment in Britain. Yet how did the Prussian As is the rule with all opposition, English liberalism gained in the same crown prince come to know English philosophy on that level? It is, strangely degree of importance to Frederick·s opponents as he lost interest in it during the enough, Frederick's Francophilia that opened the way for his enthusiasm for last decades ofhis reign, i.e. from 1765 to 1786. Arguably, all centres ofthe new British culture. It is one of the truisms about Frederick the Great that he adored anglophile and bourgeois culture in Germany in the last quarter of the J8 111 everything French and that he spoke and wrote better French then German; that century, developed more or less in opposition to the aging Frederick II. There he had mostly French artists and scientists at his court and academy.All this is was, first ofall, the court of the powerless Prince Franz von Anhalt~ Dessau who true, but needs differentiation. He loved the French language, French literature .1s famous for starting German anglomania in the late 1760s. His territory being' and philosophy but hated and despised the French state; its governmental traditionally dependent on the powerful neighbour Prussia, Frederick had system with its courtiers and mistresses.' forced him to marry an unloved princess after Franz had left the Prussian Anny The French things he loved were the opposition of France, notably the against Frederick's wish. After extensive travel in Italy and England, Franz Enlightenment and its philosophers. It was his idol Voltaire, who had travelled returned into his native princedom detennined to form this territory - not larger in Britain during the 1720s and had aligned with the ideas ofBorlingbrokes and than a good sized British country estate - into n model of freedom, taste, Locke in developing his ideal of an enlightened monarchy, who opened young prosperity and humanity by creating in Worlitz a veritable English country Frederick's eyes for the British ideals in politics and art.• And it was not mere house and the first consequent English Park on the continent - all by way of a coincidence that Voltaire was talking about Liberalism to Frederick. Studying shining example against Potsdam and Berlin.11 the sources, it becomes quite clenr that Frederick was the target of a deliberate The Impact of British Culture The Impact of British Culture Just as Frederick had been in his day, his successor, Frederick William, say, York, was incredible to any other European. was drawn towards the opposition by the Kings rude and cruel behaviour. The Yet that does not explain why it was British art rather than engineering Princes Henry and Ferdinand, both strongly interested in English art, influenced that was copied most ardently on the continent. Amazingly most Prussian artists him as well as a growing number of officials and suggested that refonns were were sent out to England by their patrons to study canal-building, iron-casting highly necessary. But Frederick William had also quite personal reasons for and cloth-spinning, yet, they came back with pictures and designs for gardens despising the old and embracing the new English ways of society. As a young and country houses, i.e. with the image ofa seemingly perfect style ofliving! man he had fallen in love with a middle-class girl, whom he educated and taught We have seen that the English country house culture was developed as and with whom he developed a deep, lifelong love and friendship, and with a culture of opposition in England itself against the court. Thus the country whom he had five children. Yet Frederick II forced the crown prince to marry house was an image, the projection ofan ideal, a utopia ofa liberal, prosperous, some politically-desirable princess. Because in Britain, marriage between cultured and harmonic world. It was a political statement; a picture, not so much 1 aristocrats and middle-class women had been common for a long time, Britain a reality .! appeared for Frederick William as the land of hope and 'free love·. The reality On the continent, it could even more successfully serve as a counter­ is, in England, money had simply replaced birth as the separating force between image to the absolutist courts, as the country-house idea was implanted to the Figurc4B. lovers. Yet in the idealized version of English novels that spread across the continent truthfully to the fonn but into totally different social and economic continent since the 17SOs (e.g. Richardson's Pemela), England became circumstances. Thus, an English park in Germany has always been something understood in Europe as the land of triumphant love and human equality.'~ very different from the ·original· in Britain. The vast green spaces ofan English Together with his lovei; Wilhelmine, he therefore developed, from the 1760s on, park, with its clumps of trees, in Britain always had an economic purpose of a deep and passionate Anglophilia. Figurc2. grazing sheep or cattle whereas in Germany these parklands were artificially When he finally became king, all was ready. Within a month he called created and maintained without ever having any economic purpose at all. And the artists, who had silently cultivated the new style at the outskirts of Prussia, to thus, in a way, a German-English landscape is an even more artificial picture and Berlin. Thus, a more-or-less fully developed style was implanted into the expression ofan ideal then any English counterpart. Prussian capital and it quickly grew there to the highest standards. ,, But arguably these islands of a new beauty had to be created first as a The most demonstrative sign of the new times, and thus the new promise to what the new times would achieve. Only then, economic, aesthetic, was the redecoration of Frederick the Greats bedroom in his sanctity, agricultural, technical and even social change after English models became Sans Souci. Soon after his death, Erdmannsdorff, the chief architect of Franz possible. Thus British art came first and in its wake the bourgeois world of the von Anhalt-Dessau, was called to Berlin to change Frederick's bedroom into 19111 century. 10 one of the first neo-classicist interiors at the Prussian court (Fig. 2). Fig11rc5A. As one example of the new lifestyle, let us look at the private residence REFERENCES Frederick William built for himself as a refuge from the fonnal palace in Berlin. I. Ad~an von B11ttlar, Dl!r c11glisclrc latufsit: 171j.J760 Symbol ei11c.r liberale11 ll'e/1e11111·11rji!s. Mutcnwold 1982. This residence was neither patois nor hotel; it was a co11ntry /rouse in form as 2. Lord Shaftesbury, 'Leiter Concerning Design· ( 1712) quoted after: A. v. B11ttl11r. Der· e11glisc/1e well as in function. The king himself called it simply 'the new house·. La1U/sit=. Mi11e1111"a/d 1982, p. 138. Built between 1787-1790, it is basically a red brick cube on the 3. This summary closely follows A. v. B11ttlarsDcrc11gli.rclre La11dsitz. surrounding green of an English landscaped garden (Fig. 3A). · The exterior 4. Aller the French original as published in GB. Volz (cd), Die ll'erkc Fric1/richs des Grosse11, Bd. I o. Dichtungcn Tei I 2. Berlin 1914. p. 5 I. Fig11rc3A. looks not very British at first, yet that is only decorum; in function and layout it is S. Passages on France and Britain in Frcdrick's II i:ssay 'L'Hisloirc demon temps' ( 1746) in : J.D.I:. distinctly British. This becomes obvious when compared to, the so very Preuss. Oc1•res der Frederic le Gra11d. Berlin 1846. typically English, ifnot famous, country house, namely Wolterton Hall/ 6. Sec M. Fonti11s 'Friedrich dcr Grosse 11nd die e11ropiiisehe A11fldiirung· in: Stiflung Pre118ischc built by Thomas Ripley for Horace Walpole in the 1720s (Fig. 4A).11 Sehl0sser11nd Giincn (ed.), Frietlriclr JI. 11111/ die Krmst. Potsdam 1986, p. 130. 7. Aller \bltaircs French original" A11 roi de rrusse s11rson avcnccmcnt n11 tr6ne' in: H. Pleschinski Both houses show a ground plan with a circuit of rooms around the (ed.). Voltai1t! Friedriclrder Gros.re Brieji1·echsel.Miinchen 1995, p. 174. central, top-lit staircase, a pattern that had developed in England in the 1720s 8. Loni Borlingbrokc. Tire Ideal of a Patriot Ki11g.,London I 736. (compare the floorplans ofMannorpalais Fig. 38 and Wolterton Fig. 4B). Also 9. H.·J. Giersbcrg. Fricdriclr uls 8 011/ierr. Berlin 1986. p. 20. Fig11rc5B. of importance is the differentiation between the private living quarters at the I 0. Quoted after Buttlnr, Der E11g/isclze La11dsit:, p 42. 11. H. Schonemnnn, 'Zcitollcrder Revolution Architektur und Stadtgcstaltung' in: Strcidt (ed.), ground floor, and the set of state rooms for entertaining on the piano nobile PrcitjJe11. Kiiln 1999, p. 272. which is found in both houses. The Palladian aesthetic ideal, of a free 11. F. Milckc.Potsduml!r Bu11lo.1111st. Dus k/assjscl1e Potstlam. Fr.mkfon/M. & Berlin, J 991 ,p. 77. geometrical fonn on the green surface of the lawn, led to the separation from the 13. R.-T. Speier. 'Erdmannsdorll'. England 11ml ltalicn Bcginn, Anrcg11ng und Quellc des service wings. Thus, in Wolterton, as in Potsdam, the kitchens were Klassizism11s in Dc11tschl11nd' in· Stantliche Schlosser 11nd Garten Wiirlitz (ed.), F. ll ~ c£mran11sd01ff Lebe11, ll'crk. ll'irJ.111rg. Wiirlitz 1987, p. 26-42. consequently connected to the main house by an underground passage. 14. D. Sehwanitz: 'Selbsnhemntisierung im cnglischen Liebesromnn· in: A. Hahn, The concert room upstairs, designed by Langhans, with its two screens Selbslllrl!111a1isien111g wuf Selbst:1!llg11is Beke1111111is 1111d Gestii11d11is. Frnnkfurt/M., 1987, p. at either end to better the proportions (Fig. SA) reminds us strongly ofrooms by 283f. Wyatt or Adam from the 1760s Langhans saw during his journey to Britain in 15. C.M. Vogthcrr, 'H1111ptsladta11Sbn11 11nd Rcfonninsti111tionen 11ntcr Friedrich Wilhelm II' in: Stiftung Prc11SSische Schlosser 11nd Giinen Bcrlin·Bmndcnb11rg(ed.). Friedrich ll'il!rl!lm ll. 1111d 1775 (e.g. the Dining Room ofLandsdowne House, London l 76S by R. Adam, die Kri11ste. Potsdnm I 997. pp. 122-128. F1g11rc3B. Fig. SB). The numerous imported Wedgewood ceramics all decorating the 16. M. Giirtncr, ' Das Schloss Snns-So11ci' in· Stift11ng Prc11ssischc Schlosser 11nd Giirtcn Berlin· mantelpieces, the furniture designed after Sheraton catalogues and also the Brandenburg (ed.), Friedrich lf'i/lre/111 /l. 111111 die Kii11ste. Potsdam 1997, pp. 2 I 4-2 J 5. 17. P. Seidel, · Das Mnnnorpalnis im Ncucn Garten in Potsdam · in: Hohcnzollcn Johrbuch X.. 1909, books in the library, complete the picture of a medium-sized English country p.381T. house. ' ~ 18. A. Kln11smeicr, · \\bltenon Holl in Norfolk von Thomas Ripley Zurn Hnuptwerk eincs von dcr In it the king wanted to live free from etiquette as a well-to-do Architek111rgeschichtc Vcrstosscncn · in· arcl1itect11ru, Jahrgnng J998 , 59 ff landowner would. He enjoyed walking with his dogs in the garden for hours in 19. S. Evers (a.o.): Das Mannorpnlais die Ausstnuung in· Slift11ng Pre11ssische SchlOsscr 11nd Giirt~n Berlin-Brandenburg: Friedrich Wilhelm IJ.11nd die Kiinstc,cntalog11e 1997, p. 357ff. plain, middle-class dress rather than unifonn. He took care of the plants in the 20. W. Bnngmnnn,PrertjJerz u111er Fricdriclr lf'i/lre/1111/. FrankfunJM .. 200 I, J42ff . garden and dined with a little circle offriends in a humble style.~ 21. R. Wilson nnd A. Mackley, Creati11g Paradise Tire B11iltli11g of tire E11glislr Cormrty House, I 660-1880, London 2000. CONCLUSION So what lays behind such Anglomania as it was found in Prussia in the second half of the 18'~ century? The most obvious thing is that Britain was simply the most advanced and wealthy country of the time, and that it offered the ideal alternative to all those that were dissatisfied with the way things were going on Fig11rc4A. the continent. The progress Britain had achieved in economical, technical and educational tenns in its Augustan Age was simply stunning to continental visitors. For example, the speed and comfort ofa coach journey from London to