DIS European Garden Art Spring 2014: The English Landscapers of the 18th Century

Charles Bridgeman

The first appearance of Charles Bridgeman was in 1709 when his signature appears on a plan for the Blenheim gardens. Bridgeman was apprenticed to Henry Wise who was appointed the head gardener at Brompton Park Nursery by Queen Anne. When Wise was assigned Blenheim, Bridgeman followed and most likely worked as a surveyor/draughtsman and eventually became responsible for laying out the general lines of the garden. In 1713 Bridgeman began to work on Stowe, and when the garden was enlarged in 1720 he made the Rotunda the focal point, pulling together the scattered parts of the old garden (see plan in figure). This lead to the appearance of a deemphasized central axis and made for a larger focus on the complex walks and vistas that “laced” the garden together. In 1721 Bridgeman made his plans for Rousham which made apparent his ability to see the “genius loci” or “the genius of the place” a concept created by Alex Pope (a poet in the 18^th century). In other words Bridgeman had the ability to see what the landscape could truly look like. Although this concept can be applied to all of the English Landscape designers, Bridgeman was one of the first people to embody this idea. Bridgeman embraced the natural curves, hills, rivers/streams, and roads of the landscape and only improved upon them. In this way Bridgeman began to free the English landscape from the ridged geometry inherited from the French Baroque in alignment with the anti-French sentiment of the time. One of the main themes of the baroque gardens was rigid enclosure. In an effort to break down those barriers and open up the garden Bridgeman invented the Ha-Ha, an extraordinary name for a brilliant invention. The idea was to define the boundaries of the property and keep out the animals without obstructing the view. Thus began the notion of the borrowed landscape because the garden and landscape beyond appeared to be one. (As we will discuss later it was Bridgeman’s successor, Kent, who went beyond the boundaries of the property and began to tinker with the landscape/view beyond). Bridgeman was the beginning of the English landscape design he was really a transitional character for he still had a few straight walkways and clipped hedges. However, he was still the first to include the wilderness, fields, and forest.

Rousham

Since Bridgeman was one of the first landscape artists, his work was usually “enhanced” by his successors; William Kent was the most notable. Kent was born in England but took several tours to Rome to be trained and compete as a painter. Kent was taught by Guiseppe Chiari and did a great deal of copying his master’s classically inspired work and in 1718 he painted the ceiling of a Catholic Church in Rome. Once he returned to London he began to design the exterior and interior or buildings. However, what he is most well-known for are his advances in the English Landscape design. Kent achieved this by furthering the work of Bridgeman. Bridgeman laid the framework and Kent loosened it. It has been said that Kent “leaped the fence and saw that all nature was a garden. He felt the delicious contrast of hill and valley changing imperceptibly into each other, tasted the beauty of the gentle swell or concave scoop, and remarked how loose groves crowned an easy eminence with happy ornament”. Kent made his landscapes like

William Kent

the paintings he saw in Rome, therefore making his gardens “picturesque”. If we take another look at Rousham we can see the Birdgman’s groundwork and then Kent’s alterations. Kent never intended the garden to be seen in one glance. It was very intentionally interactive, it was made to be walked through, to be experienced. If you stand on the top terrace and you look out into the landscape he calls in country by putting garden buildings into the lanscape to make it look as if the whole of your lanscape is a garden. Some of the notable sculptures put in the landscape were the dying gladiator a very apasite the Horse being attacked by the Lion has two interpretations: tamed nature being consumed by untamed nature (very appropriate for the freedom of the English landscape taking over controlled baroque style) or England, the lion, consuming France, the horse. Kent brings in his knowledge of classical architecture which he tucks into his landscape, the meaning of which educated people of the time would have understood immediately, whereas today the meaning is either completely lost or must be looked up.

Lancelot "Capability" Brown

Lancelot “Capability” Brown was the next, and perhaps the last, brilliant landscape designer. Much like Kent, he came in after and improved upon the landscaping that he predecessors had done. The most notable work is the gardens at Stowe. The garden was first given its basic form and outline by Bridgeman and then Kent came in and loosened it quite a bit more. Kent also worked with the owner Cobham to riddle the gardens with insurmountable political symbolism. Brown, however, kept the inspiration of Kent in the landscape and Bridgeman’s outline and, other than that, totally redid the garden. The idea was to make the garden identical to nature, only better: using the idea of improving nature. Brown made the lines of his gardens invisible by using trees. Unlike Kent, Brown’s inspiration came from England and the land itself, rather than Rome and the classics. Brown also incorporated a lot of lakes in his designs, not only because they reflected the vast sky but also because being able to construct a lake meant that you had a lot of money and, therefore, influence. He considered himself to be a place-maker, not a landscape designer. He simply made the place what it should have been all along.