4 influences of the 18th c.on landscape design ppt

18th Century English Landscape

Gardens

Hortykim

Hortykim, Otago Polytechnic 2010

Origins of the Garden


If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl Buck

If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. Pearl Buck

Welcome to our interesting study of garden history where you will look at major characteristics from the Neolithic age through to contemporary New Zealand gardens.

Gardening is an ancient art in which people have created gardens for a combination of practicality and style.

In order for us to create gardens, it is important to study design principles, elements and features from the past in order to see where we are today. We hope you will enjoy this journey back in time and be inspired by the past garden styles from all over the world, many of which we will be able to link to gardens today.



If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl BuckAfter the death of Louis the 14th there was a softening of the classical style that is so strongly associated with The French Classical Style or Baroque French Gardens. Bassin de Latone – Latona Fountain with the tapis

vert and the Grand Canal in the background in the Gardens of Versailles.



Le Notre’s style and the many elaborate features of the Versailles type of garden was a huge influence over garden design in many parts of Europe from the late 17th C and into the 18th C.

André Le Nôtre’s Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. Le Nôtre's garden was the dominant structure of the great complex.It stretched for 3 kilometers with a balanced composition of water basins and canals contained in stone curbs as well as fountains, gravel walks, and patterned parterres.

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We owe much to Le Notre’s style and the classical touch he used in his gardens like classical sculptures and fountains, however, sometimes if something is Baroque you have to fix it.

Statistical Information on the gardens of VersaillesSize: 800 ha.Number of trees: 200,000Flowers planted annually: 210,000Number of fountains: 50Number of jets of water: 620Surface area of the Grand Canal: 23 ha.Perimeter of the Grand Canal: 5.57 kmAmount of piping to feed the fountains: 35 km.

View of the Bassin d’Apollon engraving by Louis de Chastillon, 1683



Gardens start to evolve into being less classical and more fun, although there is still a strong emphasis on the use of formality and symmetry.

This style is called Rococo and one of the sole survivors from this brief early 18th C period is located in Painswick, UK. The Painswick Rococo Garden combines formality and informality in a flamboyant package.

Location of garden



Chinoiserie gardens started to emerge as well. These included pagodas and steeply curved bridges. Chinoiserie entered the European garden repertory in the mid-to-late 17th C.

The popularity of Chinoiserie peaked around the middle of the 18th C, when it was assimilated into Rococo by the works of François Boucher but it declined when it was deemed by European views as a direct and tacky contrast to Neoclassicism.

Painting by François Boucher



Versailles type gardens and features were widely copied in England into the late 17th and early 18th C.

English designers, London and Wise, worked as partners on parterre gardens at Hampton Court, Chelsea, Longleat, Chatsworth, Melbourne Hall, Wimpole Hall and Castle Howard. London and Wise drew inspiration from engravings of contemporary garden designs in France and the Netherlands.

A garden recreated in the style of Henry VIII's gardens of 1536 - Hampton Court



Did you know that the grounds of the Chelsea Royal Hospital have been the site of the annual Chelsea Flower Show since 1913?

Figure Court of Royal Hospital Chelseahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Flower_Show



It was to be the English Landscape Garden that would radically oppose and change the formality of the Versailles type garden style and by 1720 there was an ousting of this model.

The paintings of Claude Lorrain inspired Stourhead and other English landscape gardens.



The English Landscape Garden would quickly replace the old French school and it has been said that this new school of landscape design was England’s only true indigenous export.

Castle Howard (1699-1712), a predecessor of the English garden modeled on the gardens of Versailles.



Why did the Versailles type of garden become so unpopular?

•The undulating countryside of Britain is not suitable for large geometric displays.

•There was little woodland left by this time so there were no stands of trees in which to cut allees and straight sight lines.

• Elaborate social displays were not as important to English aristocracy.

Rotunda at Stowe Garden (1730-38)



•English society was experiencing a renaissance of cultural and classical values, plus an awareness of the natural world.

•The natural world came to be respected as superior to anything created by man.

Garden of Rousham House, by William Kent (1737)



This idea of the natural world was romanticize so there was some duplicity.

•Nature came to imply some natural disorder, but we know that nature is essentially orderly.

•The natural looking lakes and stands of trees were as man- made as the now rejected French garden style.

•“Artifacts” like Roman statues and building ruins were still acceptable.

Ionic Temple at Chiswick House



Let’s look at the development of English garden design and some of the designers who broke away from formal, enclosed gardens to lead the way to more natural landscape design.

Charles Bridgeman (1690–1738) was an English garden designer during the onset of the Naturalistic landscape style. Bridgeman is a somewhat obscure entity in the history of landscape architecture but was still significant. Charles Bridgeman



Transitional elements in his designs included lawns, amphitheatres, garden buildings, statues, winding paths through wooded areas to viewing points and the use of ha-has.

Bridgeman adapted the idea of military trenches in order to keep animals out or in without the use of a fence which meant a garden could extend into the pastoral surroundings without a visible barrier or break.

The Ha-ha is a trench, the one side of which is vertical and faced with stone, the other face sloped and turfed, making the trench a sunken fence or retaining wall.



William Kent was one of the originators of the style of Natural gardening that revolutionized the laying out of gardens and estates.

Kent's only limitations were his lack of horticultural knowledge and technical skill which people like Charles Bridgeman possessed and whose influence on Kent is often underestimated.

William Kent (1685 – 12 April 1748), born in Yorkshire. English architect, landscape architect and furniture designer of the early 18th C.



William Kent’s style of design was a major contribution to the history of landscape design.

The gardens at Chiswick House which from the 1720s were in a constant state of transition as Kent experimented with mock fortification, artificial boundaries (ha-has), classical fabriques, statues, groves, “egyptianizing” objects, bowling greens, winding walks, cascades and water features.

William Kent's cascade at Chiswick House



Rousham House was initially laid out by Bridgeman in 1727 and then re-created by Kent in 1737.

Kent created winding paths, built a gently turning stream and used the natural landscape features and slopes to create a series of views and tableaus decorated with statues.

He also used a "ha-ha," instead of fences, so the garden seemed to go far into the distance.

Rousham in Oxfordshire is considered by some as the most accomplished and significant of William Kent's work.



At Rousham House, Kent created temples, cascades, grottoes, Palladian bridges and exedra. This opened the field for the larger scale achievements of Capability Brown in the following generation.

Kent’s all but lost gardens at Claremont, Surrey, have recently been restored. It is often said that he was not above planting dead trees to create the mood he required.

Within the grounds of Claremont, is an unusual turfed amphitheatre, which used to form the centrepiece of an annual event called the Claremont Fête champêtre.



The most influential figure in the later development of the English landscape garden was Lancelot "Capability" Brown (1716–1783) who began his career in 1740 as a gardener at Stowe under Charles Bridgeman, then he succeeded William Kent in 1748.

During his career he created or recreated over 170 gardens one of which is the very famous Chatsworth gardens.

Brown earned his nickname due to his stock response when asked about designing a property, that it had “capabilities” which he could bring out.



His capabilities were grounded in his ability to detect, analyze and develop the spirit of a property. Brown’s landscapes were simple and open.

His style included smooth, undulating lawns which would run straight to the house, belts and scattering of trees. His hallmark was to create artificial lakes. He also used dams and canals to transform streams or springs into the illusion that a river flowed through the garden.

Garden of Chatsworth House, by Capability Brown



He developed a "gardenless" form of landscape gardening, which swept away almost all the remnants of previous formally patterned styles.

Brown's contribution was to simplify the garden by eliminating geometric structures and parterres near the house and replace them with rolling lawns and extensive views out to isolated groups of trees, making the landscape seem larger.

Blenheim Palace Park, by Capability Brown



It may be of interest that the gardens around Stowe House were created in three main phases, showing the development of garden design in 18th C England. It is the only garden where Bridgeman, then Kent, followed by Brown, all made their mark.

In its final form the gardens were the largest and most elaborate example of what became known in Europe as the English garden.

The north entrance in 1750. Major alterations were made after that date



By the 1790s there was a reaction against the painterly landscapes created by designers like Kent and Brown.

Some designers began to promote the idea of Picturesque gardens. The leader of the movement was landscape theorist William Gilpin, an artist known for his realistic depictions of Nature.

William Gilpin by Henry Walton



Gilpin preferred the natural landscape over the manicured.

He felt that while classical beauty was associated with the smooth and neat, picturesque beauty had a wilder, untamed quality.

The picturesque style also incorporated architectural follies like castles, gothic ruins and rustic cottages.

Penrith castle in 1772 from Gilpin's book on Cumberland and Westmoreland.



Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the 18th C and regarded as the successor to Capability Brown.

He also laid down the foundations for the more intricate and eclectic styles of the nineteenth century. His first name is often incorrectly spelled "Humphrey".



Portrait of Humphry Repton



As his career progressed Repton drew on picturesque ideas for inspiration and responded to criticism of Brown's landscapes which were the lack of a formal setting for the house and rolling lawns sweeping right up to the front door. Repton introduced terraces, balustrades, trellis work and flower gardens around the house.

This was to became common practice in the19th C.



Business card for Humphry Reptonby Thomas Medland



Repton designed one of the most famous Picturesque landscapes in Britain at Blaise Castle.

Many of Repton’s commissions were for terraces or gardens near the house.

Repton also worked at Tatton Park, Woburn Abbey, West Wycombe, Harewood House, Bayham Abbey and many other places.



The mansion house at Blaise Castle Estate.Flint fragments show Blaise Castle Estate was probably first inhabited by Neolithic farmers. There is more definitive evidence for Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman activity through the distinctive hill forts in the area and other archaeological finds.



Repton later felt the need for formality and included fountains in his gardens.

He also was known for making informal use of flowering plants which can be seen in his “Red Books” which were bound volumes making recommendations for his client's estate which included 'before' and 'after' sketches.





Site at Wentworth, South Yorkshire before proposed landscaping.

Site at Wentworth, South Yorkshire after proposed landscaping.



In 1811 Repton suffered a serious carriage accident which left him often needing to use a wheelchair for mobility.

He died in 1818 and is buried in the Churchyard at Aylsham.

From about 1800 his work is no longer classified as part of the 18th C. Landscape garden but as part of the Gardenesque period which followed.



Repton’s grave



The English Garden style and the designers who featured during this period have been mentioned throughout the power point but a few more points could be added about the results of this era:

•Millions of native trees were planted during this period-can you name a tree native to the U.K.?



The Kew Gardens Pagoda at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London



•The use of the same features on the landscape created a sense of repetition which was not everyone’s cup of tea, so the style was criticized by some.

•The gardens were very much focused on creating a picture.



Palladian Bridge at Stowe (1730-38)



•The creation of large open spaces, an undulating line of ground/grass leading to untrimmed natural vegetation around a man- made pond, would become important features of public parks in the 19th C. and beyond.

•The English Landscape Garden was copied in France, Germany and other areas of Europe.



The English Grounds of Wörlitz were one of the largest English parks in 18th C. Europe.

References and Resources


http://wapedia.mobi/en/History_of_gardening?t=3.5. - History of Gardeninghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_le_N%C3%B4tre - Andre Le Notrehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardens_of_Versailles - Gardens_of_Versailleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque - Baroquehttp://www.gardenvisit.com/garden_glossary#ixzz0klUjvObG - Glossary of termshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_garden - The English Garden

Brooks, J., Room Outside, Thames & Hudson, 1969 Newton, N.T., Design on the Land, Belknap, Harvard University, 1971 Thacker, C. , The History of Gardens, Reed,1979 The full online text of Marie-Luise Gothein's History of Garden Art

4 influences of the 18th c.on landscape design ppt

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