unknown artist, eighteenth centuryFormerly attributed to Leonard Knyff, 1650–1721, Dutch, active in Britain (by 1681)
Title:
Pierrepont House, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
Date:
ca. 1705
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
36 3/16 x 48 inches (91.9 x 121.9 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.125
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
flowers (plants) | grass | dogs (animals) | sculpture | vases | espalier trees | genre subject | statue | people | house | landscape | gardens | costume | architectural subject | mansion | running | buildings | stairs | walking | Gothic (Medieval) | children | steps | men | women | mythology | country house | church | formal garden | parterre
Associated Places:
Nottinghamshire | United Kingdom | England | Nottingham
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Art in Focus : William III (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-04-08 - 2011-07-31)The Anglo-Dutch Garden in the age of William and Mary (Christie's (UK), 1989-01-03 - 1989-02-02)Country Houses in Great Britain - Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 1979-10-10 - 1980-01-29)The Garden (Victoria and Albert Museum, 1979-05-21 - 1979-08-26)The Pursuit of Happiness - A View of Life in Georgian England (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-09-18)
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 32-33, N590.2 A83 (YCBA)Country houses in Great Britain., Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1979, pp. 13, 30-31, 106, no. 11, pl. 11, N6764 Y34 1979 (YCBA)John Harris, The artist and the country house, a history of country house and garden view painting in Britain, 1540-1870 , Sotheby Parke Bernet, London Totowa, N.J., 1979, pp. 93, 114-15, 164; colour plate is opposite p. 49, no. 109, fig109a, Col. Pl . X, N6764 H36 + (YCBA)John Dixon Hunt, The Dutch Garden in the Seventeenth Century, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., 1990, p. 184-185, 12, SB457.58 D86 1988 (YCBA)David Jacques, Gardens of Court and Country : English Design , 1630-1730, New Haven : Yale Univeristy Press, 2017, pp. 162-163, fig. 123, SB466 G7 +J334 2017 (YCBA)J. H. Plumb, The pursuit of happiness : a view of life in Georgian England : an exhibition selected from the Paul Mellon collection, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 60, 124, no. 137, N6766 Y34 1977 (YCBA)The Anglo-Dutch garden in the age of William and Mary, De Gouden Eeuw van de Hollandse Tuinkunst , Journal of Garden History., vol. 8, nos. 2 & 3, London : Taylor & Francis, c1988, April - September 1988, pp. 240-41, no 96, pl. 96, SB457.6 H85 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) Special Double issue has been separately catalogued.William III, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2011, pp. 12-13, 23, V2340
Gallery Label:
Pierrepont House, the country seat of the Earls of Kingston, was celebrated for its ornate, enclosed Dutch-style garden. As Sir Roy Strong has noted, this painting provides us with "a rare record of the delights of a late seventeenth-century town garden," and he has described the "ground-plan... [as]...quartered, and each quarter is laid out in identical patterns. Set into grass, which was enormously labor-intensive to maintain, all the beds are edged with stone and filled with flowers. All the available wall space is given over to espaliered fruit trees, while the plethora of plant containers would have been brought out for the summer months only." These plant containers, or pots, were usually made of lead in order to prevent breakage caused by fluctuations in climate, and were painted white. A life-size statue, possibly of Flora, goddess of Spring, stands in the center of the sunken garden. This garden was, above all, a jewel-like showpiece of exotic and beautiful floral treasures and not a place for games or vigorous exercise. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005