Picturesque Gardens - Page: 2
The style of the English landscape garden was dominated by three designers: William Kent, Lancelot (Capability) Brown and Humphrey Repton. All three tended to create similar landscapes which were composed of trees and water and smooth lawns. By the 1790s there was a reaction against their rather bland compositions; a number of thinkers began to promote the idea of picturesque gardens.
The leader of the picturesque movement was the Reverend William Gilpin (1724 - 1804). He was an accomplished artist who did sketches of the natural landscapes of the various parts of the British Isles that he visited. Like many romantics, he preferred untamed nature over gardens; he felt that the professional landscape designers, especially Capability Brown, were imposing stereotypical design solutions onto the landscape, instead of responding to the natural topography.
When he became Vicar of Bouldre in 1778, Gilpin became fascinated by the surrounding forest. In 1791 he published his Remarks on Forest Scenery, in which he wrote about the picturesque appeal of twisted trees, exposed roots and irregular land forms. In 1792 Gilpin published an essay in which he wrote that while beauty is usually associated with the smooth and the neat, such as the gently sculpted landscapes of Capability Brown with their smooth lawns leading down to placid lakes; picturesque beauty tends to have a wilder quality with rougher textures. In Gilpin's view, the gardens of Brown and his followers "are never picturesque. They want the bold wildness of nature. A principle beauty of our gardens, as Mr. Walpole justly observes, is the smoothness of turf; but in a picture, this becomes a dead and uniform spot; incapable of light and shade".
Gilpin didn't dislike all landscape gardens, he felt the garden of Stourhead showed "greatness of design"; he also wasn't really Capability Brown's enemy, he admired the "nobility" of Brown's landscaping at Longleat house. Humphrey Repton was influenced by Gilpins ideas, especially the idea that the design of a garden should harmonize with the surrounding landforms; it was a bit of a shock for Repton when he found himself embroiled in a heated controversy about picturesque gardens versus the typical gardens of Capability Brown. Repton was quite open about how much his designs owed to Capability Brown, and by the early 1790s he was becoming Brown's successor, so he was the perfect target for those who disliked Brown's gardens.
In 1795, Repton published a book entitled Sketches and Hints, this book was under attack before it was even published. Sir Uvedale Price (1747 - 1829) and Richard Payne Knight (1750 - 1824) were close friends and neighbors who were united in their disdain for the bland smoothness of Capability Brown's gardens. They seized upon some ideas in Repton's book and lashed out in a pair of essays which were both published in 1794: Knights's The Landscape and Price's Essay on the Picturesque. Repton became aware of what they were doing in time to add a footnote to Sketches and Hints in which he defended his designs: "While mouldering abbeys and the antiquated cottage with its chimney smothered in ivy may be eminently appealing to the painter... in whatever relates to man, propriety and convenience are no less objects of good taste than picturesque effects".
Repton's career wasn't hurt by the picturesque controversy, and he certainly didn't reject the fashion for things Gothic. In 1799 he recommended that an estate owner build "a castle which by blending a chaste correctness of proportion with bold irregularity of outline". He went on to say that the Gothic style" has infinitely more picturesque effect than any other stile of building".
Repton probably didn't have Fonthill Abbey in mind when he wrote about "a chaste correctness of proportion"; but then, its owner, William Beckford, was never one to fuss much about propriety. Fonthill Abbey (begun in 1796), with its 300 foot tall tower, was not created for convenience; it was an attempt to inspire the sort of sublime feelings that Medieval cathedrals can evoke. It is hardly surprising that the builder of such a theatrical house would respond to the ideas expressed in Price's Essay on the Picturesque; the garden at Fonthill Abbey was inspired by the rugged landscapes in the paintings of Salvator Rosa rather than the placid compositions of Kent and Brown. It was also more of a collector's garden than earlier landscape gardens, featuring an alpine garden and an "American" garden. William Beckford said that he regarded the creation of the flowering wilderness around the Abbey as his greatest achievement. In 1825, the tower fell, destroying much of the Abbey; more of the wilderness survived and still can be visited.
The picturesque style was always dominated by architecture, not just castles, but also such exotic extravagances as the Royal Pavilion at Brighton (begun in 1787). From 1795 to 1800, Repton worked in partnership with one of the most fashionable architects of the period, John Nash. This partnership has caused many writers to describe Repton's gardens as picturesque, since a number of them were designed as settings for picturesque buildings. In 1797 Repton was summoned to Brighton and asked to come up with ideas about how to improve the gardens of the Royal Pavilion. Repton's ideas were never implemented, but his designs for this garden still exist.
Along with the fashion for castles and pseudo-Indian buildings, the picturesque movement promoted the rustic beauty of cottages. A number of thatched cottages were designed by important architects, including Nash. The romantic English cottage garden, with its billowing masses of roses, really dates from this period, earlier cottage gardens were more practical. Since romantic cottage gardens are still being created; it could be said that the picturesque movement is still alive.
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