LANCELOT (Capability) Brown (Northumberland 1716-1783)

LANCELOT (Capability) Brown (Northumberland 1716-1783) A view north-east across the lake from Blenheim Palace towards the town of Woodstock, showing the proposal for a Gothicised perimeter wall. Estimate €99,000 - 140,000. The landscape is offered on OLD MASTER PAINTINGS sales 8 Jul 2015 14:00 BST at Bonhams, London.

No name is more synonymous with landscape design in eighteenth century England than that of Capability Brown; he arguably did more to shape our landscape than anyone else in that century, and his legacy can still be seen today both in the parklands and gardens of some of our greatest country homes, and in the vocabulary of landscape design that he has passed down to us. Brown's approach was part of a new movement in landscape design that must have seemed ground-breaking and modern to eighteenth century eyes: the geometric plantings and parterres that were fashionable earlier in the century gave way to gardens that were intended to mimic nature, but nature at its very best. The look he created was deceptively simple, but the landscape had, in effect, been stage-managed to please the eye at every turn, and if considerable money and effort went into achieving it, it was designed to look completely effortless and natural. Those riding on horseback or in a carriage through Brown's parks would see a landscape that changed constantly revealing unexpected views, picturesque tableaux framed by strategically-planted trees, woodland giving way to lawns and tracts of apparent wilderness, water falling in cascades or dammed to form lakes, decorative buildings punctuating a landscape that had been in parts raised and lowered to create a visually pleasing aspect. 

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