13 Jun, 2023
In the early 18th century, ideas about garden design were changing fast. Using 18th century plans and archives we will explore the garden at Marble Hill, which included grottos, groves, wildernesses and a ninepin bowling alley! Henrietta Howard’s friendships with Alexander Pope, Lord Bathurst, Lord Peterborough and Lord Ilay, meant that her garden at Marble Hill was influenced by some of the most fashionable garden enthusiasts of the time.
13 Jun, 2023
Considered one of Britain’s greatest influences on European art and architecture, the English Landscape Movement has influenced gardens across the globe from Blenheim Palace to Central Park in New York. Developed by William Kent, along with his mentor and friend Lord Burlington, the English Landscape Movement broke down the rigid formality of the early 18th century garden to create something quite new: a natural landscape, developed to complement the neo-Palladian villa at its centre.
13 Jun, 2023
The English Landscape tradition has been described as Britain’s greatest contribution to the arts. The early eighteenth century was pivotal in the evolution of the English garden and many of our current perceptions of landscape stem from eighteenth-century theory and practice.
13 Jun, 2023
In 1807 J.M.W. Turner acquired two plots of land in Sand Pit Close on the Twickenham side of the Thames, a short walk from Richmond Bridge. He would build his little villa, to his own designs, on the larger plot, overlooking a steeply sloping garden with a very large pond, and some evidence for the way it was laid out can be found in his sketchbooks. The house and once-large garden stood alone then, on the fringes of two grand estates, and provided a peaceful retreat from the busy hum of the London art world.
13 Jun, 2023
William and Jane Hogarth took on a second home in the country in 1749. The house stood in the corner of a mixed orchard which had been enclosed within a high brick wall in the 1670s. It had been built between 1713 and 1717 and the Hogarths immediately extended it by an additional room on each of its three floors. The family was to retain a connection with the property until 1808.
