Lancelot Capability Brown; C18 landscapes

Known as the Father of British Landscape Architecture, Lancelot Cap­ab­ility Brown (1716-83) started life as an estate worker's son. The Northum­b­erland lad trained as a gardener's boy at the local country house, Kirkharle Hall. By 1741 he had reached Stowe, a Bucking­hamshire estate where he became responsible for one of the loveliest landscape gardens in England. He stayed at Stowe for ten years and got married in the local church.

Croome sits in Brown's landscape.

Note the architectural reflections in the lake

Claude and Poussin’s view of the Roman Campagna inspired naturalistic garden design and Brown refused to create formal, symmetrical French Baroque gardens. Instead he designed naturalistic, picturesque spaces with undulating grasses, tree clumps, curving lakes and flowing rivers. He wanted to create landscapes like those the C18th Grand Tourists saw in Italy.

Naturalistic did not mean untouched. Capability Brown surveyed the land he had available to him and considered how to transform the English landscape with his designs. He did whatever needed to be done: moved entire hills, created vast lakes and managed distant views. Because wide open expanses, views and vistas were so important, landowners had to cooperate with Brown. Brown asked the landowners to redesign their houses so that the views could be better seen from the front rooms & they have agreed immediately

And the landowners would have paid! By the 1760s Brown was earning a fortune, usually £500 for one commission! As an accomplished rider he was able to work fast, arriving on horseback to survey an estate and prepare the plan in detail. Where he did not even have time to visit, Brown created a design on paper and let a subcontractor get on with the job.

His 170 surviving landscapes include the World Heritage Sites at Blen­heim Palace, Highclere Castle aka Downton Abbey, Alnwick, Chatsworth, Syon Byk and Compton Verney. In these places and others, Capability Brown set the standard for contemporary and future landscape designers, and probably landscape artists as well; he created the landscape style that I think of as typically English.

Bowood House, 1880, 

Wiki

Brown laid out the western lawns and removed the early C18th formal gardens. Lawns and trees replaced a canal and parterres on three sides of the house, and also created pleasure grounds in what had been a plantation. Brown turned the lakes into a single expanse of water by removing the dam between the upper long pool and the middle pool, making way for a new bridge. In 2016-7, an influential group of organisations and landowners marked the 300th anniversary of Capability Brown's birth with a nation­wide festival celebrating his life - guided walks, musical event, theatre productions and family activities. And Capabili-Teas, C18th-style tea parties.

Money raising and organising was done by the Landscape Institute, on behalf of a partnership which included the Association of Gardens Trusts, English Heritage, Garden History Society, Historic Houses Association, National Gardens Scheme, Parks & Gardens UK, Natural England, Visit Britain, Visit England and National Trust. Their first goal was to bring the special quality of Brown’s landscapes to a wider audience, both nationally and internationally. The second goal was to have as many of Brown's parks and gardens open to the public as possible. The third goal was to fix Brown at the forefront of modern thinking on design, and on the management of the natural environment.

A remarkable collection of watercolour paintings and drawings, once owned by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great, went on show at Hampton Court Palace. Never displayed before, the exhibition of 60 detailed views of the palace, park and gardens nicely captured Hampton Court during the time when Capability Brown served there as Chief Gardener to King George III. This intriguing collection appar­ently had remained forgotten in the State Hermitage Museum archives in St Petersburg.

Hannah Northam's portrait bust of Brown

2016

No portrait bust existed of Brown. So Haddonstone, maker of architectural stonework, commissioned sculptor Hannah Northam to create a new stonework piece. Examine the bust and see that it does indeed look like Brown's 1773 portrait by Nathaniel Dance (National Gallery). The completed work went on display at Blenheim, and in Haddonstone’s own show gardens in East Haddon near Northampton.

The festival showed a play called Mr Brown’s Directions that was produced at Burton Constable. And Capability Brown themed guided garden tours were held at Bowood House in Wiltshire. Visitors were taken along the lake, to the hidden cascade and through the arboretum, followed by a lunch in the House Restaurant. The rest of the day was free to explore the historic Georgian house and grounds.

Compton Verney in its Brown landscaped park

near Stratford-upon-Avon.

Was Capability Brown always admired? Of course not.. tastes come and tastes go. Brown's reputation declined rapidly after his death, because his landscape style was gentle and undulating. It was not remotely dramatic nor did it express the full conflict of wild nature. In the C19th Brown’s critics were either bored with his work or rude about it.

one of Compton Verney galleries

Many thanks to the Lancelot Capability Brown: a Research Impact Review, University of East Anglia.

 

Voltaire: writer living pre-Enlightenment

François Marie Arouet (1694-1778) was the son of a treas­ury of­ficial. In 1704, soon after his mother’s death, Arouet was sent to the Jesuit Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris for 7 years. He wrote poetry and performed in plays in Latin and French and when Arouet left Coll­ège at 17, the lad wanted to become a writer. Having already planned a law career for his son, dad forced Francois to be a lawyer’s assistant for two years, but the lad devoted his en­ergy to writing satirical poetry instead. So his father sent him to the country with marquis de Saint-Ange Louis de Caumartin, writing history.

When King Louis XIV died in 1715, Arouet went home. The king’s reign had been miserable, so things HAD to change for the bett­er, and he was welcomed into Paris’ literary society. In the Duchess of Maine's circle, Arouet again contributed to a libellous satirical poem ridic­ul­ing the Prince Regent Orleans. And as a result he was again exiled from Paris in May 1716! Was the young man truly reckless? Or just naïve?

Some "unacceptable" quotes by other writers were falsely ascribed to him, making him look worse. So soon he was back in Par­is’ infamous Bast­il­le prison. Inside he worked on a new play and this tragedy Oedipe was his 1st theatrical success. It was also in this prison that he began The Henr­iade, an ep­ic poem about Henry IV, and he adopted penname Voltaire. Voltaire was gaoled for a year for satirising politics & religion in La Henriade. Released in 1718, Oedipe was successfully perf­orm­ed in Paris, running for 45 nights estab­lish­ing Vol­taire’s fame as a great playwright at 23 and making money! And securing him a regent’s pension. In 1725 he conflicted with a powerful young nobleman, Chev­al­ier de Roh­an, who insulted Voltaire. Soon after, the writer was called outside while dining with a Duke and was beaten by Rohan’s thugs. Voltaire soon chall­enged Rohan to a duel, but was arrested that day and was thrown into the Bastil­le, again! 

copy of the pastel portrait of Voltaire, 1735

originally painted by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour

meisterdrucke

Af­ter prison Voltaire chose exile in Brit­ain for 3 years. New King George II was not a lit­erature fan, but Queen Caroline loved poetry and welcomed Voltaire into society. Quickly mastering English, he published The Henriade in English, dedicated to the Queen. And befriended a stimul­at­ing group eg Prime Min Sir Robert Walpole, Lord Boling­­broke, poet Alexander Pope & playwr­ight William Congreve. And he read the work of two of the great think­ers of the C17th: natural scient­ist Isaac New­ton and phil­os­oph­er John Locke.

In Britain Voltaire produced 2 works: Essay Upon Epic Poetry and Essay Upon the Civil Wars in France in 1727. He wrote that humans con­troll­ed their own des­t­iny, rejecting the idea that Divine Inter­vention guided history. After he'd been im­p­ressed by Britain’s free­dom of speech & religious tol­erance, Voltaire returned home in 1729 and saw the UK’s constitut­ional mon­archy as the more progressive. It was easy pub­lish­ing Lett­ers Concerning the Eng­lish Nation in Eng­lish (1733), but pub­lishing the Letters in French was not. The publ­isher was sent to prison and the book was burned publicly.

Voltaire met brilliant mathem­at­ician-scientist Emilie de Breteuil marquise du Châtelet in 1733 and at her invitation the wr­iter moved to Cirey in E France. There they began their 16-year affair. They were a perfect Enlighten­ment couple working together, stud­ying natural sciences, performing their own lab ex­periments, studying history and philosophy. They collected and studied 21,000+ books. Mme du Châtelet’s translation of Newton’s Principia and Volt­aire’s Elements of Newton’s Philosophy were key to in­tro­ducing the new natural philosophy ideas to the Continent
                                                       

Mahomet the Prophet, a five-act tragedy

by Voltaire, 1736.

Wiki

In 1740-9 Voltaire moved between Brussels, Cirey and Paris. His most successful play in the 1740s was Mahomet the Prophet, playing in Lille and then Paris. This study of religious fanaticism por­trayed Mohammed as a power-hungry intrig­ue but Cath­olic clergy saw it as a veiled attack on Christian fanat­ic­ism and burn­ed the book. So Vol­taire asked the Pope for his consent to dedicate Mohammed to him. By then many Frenchmen hailed Voltaire as the greatest writer; he was placed in Germany’s Hall of Fame and was elected a mem­ber of Britain’s Royal Society. But the Ac­ad­émie Fran­çaise rejec­t­ed him again. Only in 1746, with the King and the Pope behind him, was Voltaire fin­al­ly admitted.

Château de Voltaire à Ferney

Voltaire rebuilt the castle entirely from 1758.

Tiqets

Earlier Voltaire received a letter from Frederick Prince of Prussia, starting a long correspondence. In Sept 1749 Madame du Châtelet died in childbirth, devastating Voltaire. So eventually he accepted the invitation of the then-King Frederick to move. The move failed and after 2 years Voltaire was granted leave, leaving Potsdam 1753. Voltaire bought a stylish country house near Geneva in 1754. Having some weal­th then, he built a priv­ate thea­tre but Geneva had a law forbidding theatrical perf­orm­ances. In late 1758 he bought an extensive property on Lake Geneva at Ferney. There he spent his last 20 years, entertaining so­ciety and producing fine works.

The irr­ev­erent Cand­ide (1759) was a witty romance, but also a clear attack on France’s religious philosoph­y. 5 years after Candide, Voltaire published his greatest philosophical writings, Philosophical Dictionary in 1764 where the ideal religion taught morality & rej­ected dogma. Naturally his book was condemned in Paris, Amsterdam and Geneva!!

Candide

published in 1759

In 1778 after 20 years in Ferney, Voltaire longed to return to Paris. He had completed his last work, the tragedy Irene, its first per­formance being at Paris’ National Theatre. His niece-lover Madame Denis was also very keen to return home so they set out, arriving to a hero’s wel­come. The 83 year old man prepared for the opening of Irene, but became seriously ill and soon died. The Church refused to give Voltaire a Christian burial, so his body was taken secretly to an abbey in Champagne and buried.

Voltaire was the perfect Enlightenment man, spending much of his adult career in prison or exile. Alas Vol­taire's France was one in which the monarchy, nobility & clergy dominated. It was an era of book burning and imprison­ment by the ruling class. Ironically the time the French Re­volution began 11 years after Vol­taire died, ideas of universal humanity were popular and only then could Voltaire’s liter­at­ure and campaigning against injustice be truly valued.

Canadian history, Hudson’s Bay Co and furs

The C17th fur trade became a major commercial growth in Nth Am­erica, due to Eur­ope’s dem­and for beaver hats. Two French trad­ers pl­an­ned a trad­ing com­pany to reach the inland via Hudson Bay and to gain access to the int­er­ior fur resources. Af­ter not win­n­ing French sup­­port, they went to Prince Rupert in Britain in 1665 where Rup­ert sw­ay­ed cousin King Charles II, mer­ch­­ants and noble men to back the ve­n­ture. Two ships were sent mid 1668 and the royal charter for Rup­ert’s Land. Hudson’s Bay Co./HBC was pr­o­claimed May 1670. The Gov­ernor and Co. of Advent­ur­ers of England received ex­clusive trading rights in Hud­son Bay Terr­it­ory.

Original charter of the HBC, declared in 1670

HBC shareholders at Annual General Court Meeting elected a Governor and comm­ittee to organ­ise fur auctions, order trade goods, hire workers and arr­ange shipping. The London-based Governor set all the basic polic­ies implem­ented in Rup­ert’s Land, using annual reports, journals & accounts supplied by the Bay of­f­icials. 

Prince of Wales and Eddystone, Hudson's Bay Co. Ships

Canadian Encyclopaedia

After trapping beaver pelts when they reached their best quality (win­t­er), Indigenous Peoples trav­elled to the trading posts in sum­m­er. These traders were middlemen, bringing furs from inland communities and trad­ing furs for manufactured goods eg tools, guns, text­il­es, food.

In 1713 France agreed to England’s claim to Hudson Bay with Treaty of Utr­echt. For 60 years, the HBC erected posts largely at major rivers flowing into the bay. This hesit­ance to establish posts in Rupert’s Land all­owed comp­et­itors to out­do the HBC by travel­l­ing into the in­ter­ior to trade with Indigenous peoples. In return, ind­igenous trad­ers extracted greater ret­urns for their furs. 

 

Timber wolf fur sales, Fur Harvesters Auction in North Bay, Ont.

CBC

Until 1763 HBC struggled with the French for control of fur trades in south­ern Rupert’s Land, and naval battles erupted on Hud­son & James Bays. In the Treaty of Paris 1763, the Montreal overland trade network was taken by the British. By 1774 HBC trade had been undercut enough that the Governor designed an aggres­s­ive policy of inland expansion, be­ginning with building facilities on the Saskatch­ewan River.

Intensive competition with the North West Co. spil­l­ed beyond Rup­ert’s Land into the Pac­if­ic slope, combining economic conflict with occasional physical viol­ence. In 1821 the parties merged, and the British Parlia­ment extended the Co.’s monopolies to include the N.W Territories.

Bringing together the different business traditions of the North West Co. and HBC required changes in the new Co’s administrative structure. British North America was divided into trading depart­ments and dist­r­icts. District managers met annual­ly in depart­mental council meetings presided over by the Governor in North Am­erica, Sir George Simpson. Th­ese coun­cils passed reg­ul­ations governing local trade, det­er­mined work­ers’ deployment and established the log­is­tical requirements. The offic­ers also had a vested interest since they shared in the profits, accord­ing to the 1821-71 deed polls. But Sim­pson had considerable power, and the London Governor overruled local decisions. Post-merger, the HBC closed many unprof­itable trading posts, adv­ersely damaging Indigenous groups whose survival relied on fur.

After 1821, independent free Métis traders at the Red River Colony opp­osed the Co’s monopoly rights, which had been renewed in 1838. The issue ended in the famous 1849 Sayer Trial, where Métis man Pierre-Guillaume Sayer was tried and convict­ed of trading with Indigen­ous groups, violating the Co’s legal privileges. The court’s decision to free him effectively opened the trade of Rup­ert’s Land.

To standardise trade between posts, HBC introduced the Made Beav­er as the currency (1857). All furs were valued according to the equivalent of one prime male beaver skin. Hud­s­on's Bay Co. fur trade im­pacted on Indig­en­ous peoples, many of whom ab­andoned th­eir life-styles and economy, and relied on Europ­ean manuf­ac­t­ured goods for survival.

Although the Co.’s primary concern remained the fur trade, it increas­ingly provided government for settlers in Red River Valley and Vanc­ouver Island. Only in 1849 did Britain grant­ the Van­couver Island col­ony to the HBC, to be used as an agricultural sett­lement.

During the Fraser Gold Rush in 1858, the mainland colony of British Co­l­umbia was created out of New Caledonia. Governor James Douglas was requ­ir­ed by the British govern­ment to resign his HBC commission before bec­om­ing Governor of BC. Thus the Co. began to relinquish its colonial res­ponsibilities. It was then Canada’s growing expansionist movement saw the ann­exation and settlement of the NW as essential to Canada’s future.

Expansionists portrayed the HBC as delaying Canada’s growth; they cl­aim­ed that to protect its fur trade interests, the HBC had proclaimed that the NW was a barren waste­land, unsuited to agricultural set­tlement. But this belief was challenged by reports of the Palliser and Hind expedit­ions in 1857-60 which encouraged westward British settlement.

In 1863, International Financial Society bought control in HBC, signal­l­ing a shift in the Co: most new shareholders were less interested in the fur trade than in real estate and economic development in the West. Negotiations held with the Colonial Office and with the Can­adian government DID result in selling Rupert’s Land to Can­ada in 1870. In the agreement the Co retained title to the old trading lands.

Fur trader in Northwest Territories, in the 1890s

Wiki

See the post-1870 growth. By retain­ing large land­holdings on the prair­ies adjacent to its posts, many of which were loc­at­ed in growing ur­ban centres, the HBC became a most im­portant dev­el­opers in western Canada.

As Prairie economic development accelerated post-1870, the Co. expanded retail business with settlers. Initially most of this act­ivity occurred at its trading posts. Since it differed from the trade with Indigenous groups, separate sales shop accounts were kept. Then the HBC’s retail and whole­sale divisions emerged, with outlets separate from fur trade. In 1910 the Co was divided into 1]land, 2]fur & 3]retail. In 1913 HBC helped build new retail shops, recog­nising that this had a greater fut­ure potential than land and fur sales. The first of the 6 stores op­en­ed in Calg­ary and the last in Winnipeg in 1926. From 1965 the shop em­braced the short form of its name, The Bay, and its logo featured the B. And its historic coat of arms nodded to its rich role in Canadian history.

Hudson's Bay Montreal, department store chain acquired by HBC in 1960.

 In 1970, 300th year in HBC history, the Queen formally transferred it from U.K to Canada, with new headquarters in Winnipeg. The Co. owned 239 dep­art­ment stores in Canada and U.S then. But  after failing to secure new financing or buyers, the historic 355-year-old retailer permanently closed its last doors in 2025 and completed liquidation.

Thank you to Canadian Encyclopedia

 

fine Coimbra University Library, Portugal

facade of Joanine Library, University of Coimbra

established 1717

Wiki

One of the primary functions of libraries was to protect books from the physical effects of climate, theft, vandalism, and bugs. And the role of library historians is about art history, buildings, science, technology, culture, religion and education. Thank you Dr J Campbell.

I chose the Biblioteca Joanina, a baroque library in Coimbra University Portugal, because it was considered one of the most beautiful libraries in the world. It was named to honour the founder, Portugal’s King João V aka John V, who began building in 1717 until 1728. This remarkable library of early C18th Europe was registered as a National Monument. The Coimbra Uni Library was the best example of Portuguese Baroque and one of the richest European libraries. The Library functioned as the Uni Library until mid C20th.

King John V's portrait

wiki

The Noble Floor consisted of 3 halls filled with shelves & verandas richly ornamented with carvings & gold paintings. Note the black background in 1st hall, red background in 2nd hall and green background in 3rd hall. The 3 halls were connected by archways decorated with crests while the wooden lining was painted to resemble marble and the ceiling figures were carefully chosen. The walls were lined with 2 storeys of gilded multi-coloured oak shelves and 6 embossed tables made from precious, tropical woods were placed in the halls.

The Middle Floor supported the guards who watched over the academic prison (closed 1834) and operated as a deposit for the books read on the Noble Floor. Prior to its inclusion in the Uni's tourist route (Nov 2010), this space was used to preserve ancient books: cleaning, restoration & cataloguing. In C19th, the floor may have also have been used as home for the academic community. Initially there was no easy access between the intermediate and the noble floors because the 2 floors of the Library were built late in C19th. Little effort was taken to create a rich space on this floor; the finishings were simple stones.

The books represented the best of printed material across Europe so the building was a vault designed to preserve them perfectly eg exterior walls were 2.11 ms thick. In addition to moisture and temperature, books were also affected by insects that feed on paper. To prevent this, the shelves were made from dense, durable oak, with an odour to keep insects away. For c2.5 centuries, 2 colonies of bats lived in the library for pest control. But the presence of these mammals required additional precaution: each evening the tables were covered with leather towels. This procedure, common in temples and palaces, still prevents the damage caused by animals' waste now.

This extensive care was due to the rarity of the documents; the collections date from C16th-18ths, whose majority represent the best works from Europe then i.e c60,000 books dating C16th-C18th i.e medicine, history, geography, humanities, science, civil & canon law, theology & philosophy. It’s also home to precious historical documents.

baroque library Coimbra Uni

Unesco World Heritage Site,

Dreamstime

Like other respected European universities, Uni of Coimbra governed itself and had its own legislation. This privilege protected the academic staff and students from living with common criminals. This remained until 1834 when the privilege was revoked. The academic prison which had been located elsewhere, operated here atop the former the Royal Palace prison. What we see now is a prison of medieval origin with narrow cells.

Reforms were carried out by Marquis of Pombal, adding communal cells, visiting rooms and a prayer room, all visible from the centre space. More recently the ground floor operated as a book deposit, following the end of the Uni colleges mostly moved from the lower City. In some cases the libraries that served those colleges were moved here and to the intermediate floor.

The art design of the library was characterised by its international origin which emphasised the Portuguese Empire’s global reach. Chinoiserie motifs painted on exotic South American wood were entirely done by Portuguese artists, except for the monumental portrait of King John V of Portugal by Domenico Duprà in 1725. This portrait dominates the Noble Floor. Over the entrance door, see the national coat of arms. Inside there were 3 great rooms divided by decorated arches, with the same style as the portal & entirely executed by Portuguese artists. The walls have by 2 storeyed shelves, in gilded or painted exotic woods (esp Brazilian). Painted ceilings were by the Lisbon artists Simões Ribeiro & Vicente Nunes while Manuel da Silva did the chinoiserie shelves. Gaspar Ferreira was an artist was endowed with special skill for ornamental art.

All the bibliographic works were in a preserved condition, due to the building being a perfect vault with a stable environment all year. The building was seen as a library house constructed with exterior walls c2.11 ms thick. The vault door was made of teak, maintaining the space at a constant c19°C. To maintain this stable environment the humidity hovers c60%, conditioning the wood interior. As well as humidity and temperature, the stacks were affected by another enemy: insects that survive on paper. They was repelled by oak wood, that as well as its density, elicited an odour that was repellent to these insects.

King João V was recognised for his extensive patronage of culture, science and the arts, and this library was one of his best legacies. Having in its origins the old statutory requirement of the provision of a public library at the Uni, its construction took place between 1717-28. In its architecture as well as in its sumptuous decoration, many artists would collaborate and interact well to convert it into an excellent uni library. The splendour is intact!

Between the rector's request, which was behind the origins of the Uni's new library, and the King's response, a subtle change occurred in 1716. While the Uni representative was referring to the organisation of a room suitable for the library, the monarch favoured finding a place in the Uni Courtyard. Contrary to expectations, royal grace significantly expanded the School's ambition.

The Uni facilities had occupied the former Royal Palace, so a new location was chosen, making use of the ruined remains of the C14th palatine prison in D. João I’s reign. Late in the C18th it was used as rental houses, while the public rooms opened onto the courtyard which were extended.

Bronze artists, coppersmiths, glaziers and craftsmen were working together in their various trades. Established in Lisbon, Italian Francesco Realdino was hired in 1725 to create 6 sumptuous precious wood reading tables, master-pieces of C18th carpentry. The Minerva stairs dated back to 1724 and the project was largely completed in 1728. Documentation of the architectural plans for the Uni library led to a conflict between the works, designed in 1] a regional baroque style VS 2] Lisbon royal artists. Plus the King wanted to build a new library VS the Uni's request to renovate an existing facility.

map of Portugal, Porto in north, Coimbra in centre, Lisbon further south

The king worked in 1699-1702 on the sculptural decoration of the new classroom wing. It was the task of French sculptor Claude de Laprade, working in Lisbon since early C18th where he worked in stone or wooden sculpture, & altar-pieces. The Library's work combined both national and international trends. 3 years after the work was completed, the Uni commissioned gilded bronze numbers, now seen on the shelves to place all Uni books in designated places: Room 1: Maths-Medicine; Room 2: Laws-Canons; Room 3: Arts-Theology. Realising it was impossible to distribute them freely, they created large catalogues!

Credit to  Dr J Campbell: The Library: World History 2013

Picnics from noble feasts to rural relaxing

Picnics were the very epitome of innocent pastoral delight, but allow Alexander Lee to give us the history of this form of fun. Then I will add my own histories.

The French root of picnic may derive from piquer/to peck and nique/small amount. The word first appeared in 1649, a burlesque satire on Fronde hypocrisy, an insurrection chal­l­enging French absolutism. Ironically the main character, Pique-Nique, was a guzzling millitary hero.

In any case, it caught the imagin­ation of Paris’ beau monde and soon lost any pejorative assoc­iations. As Gilles Ménage’s Dictionnaire (1694) showed, a pique-nique had become a fashionable dinner, to which each guest contributed.

Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, 
Édouard Manet, 1863 
Pushkin Museum, Moscow. 

Picnics really started to come into their own during the C18th. A favourite pastime of the aristocracy, they were indoor affairs, held at home or in hired rooms. They were contrasted with the elab­orate fêtes champêtres depicted by Antoine Watteau etc. Att­end­ees could either bring a dish or drink, OR pay a share of the cost.

Like cultural salons, picnics were linked to intellectual refinement. Typical was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who, while rewriting the first act of Les Muses galantes in Paris, would often dine with the Abbé de Condillac ‘tête à tête en pique-nique’. At larger gatherings, there was also music or a dance, just like a party.

The French Revolution changed everything. Many aristocrats fled abroad to Austria, Prussia or America; but more chose Britain. Settling prim­arily in London without much money, they did their best to maintain their old lifestyle. But in London, the picnic became more raucous, thanks to a group of 200 wealthy young Francophiles, who founded the Pic Nic Society in late 1801. Held in hired rooms in Tottenham St, their gatherings were extravagant. Every member was required to bring a dish and six bottles of wine, and each strove to outdo the others in luxury. After dinner there was singing, dancing and gambling; but the key entertainment was always an amateur play.

Before long journalist-politician  Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) , owner of Drury Lane Theatre, was alarmed at losing business to the Pic Nics. Sheridan used his influence to have the Pic Nics shut down; but not before the caricaturist James Gill­ray had ridiculed the lot of them in 1802.

Just as Sheridan was becoming furious in London, picnics were taken up by the emergent middle classes and moved outdoors. Why? Possibly the socially asp­irat­ional applied a fash­ion­ab­le French word to a pre-existing prac­t­ice, without being aware of its connotations. Anyhow picnicking ceased to be associated with music-dancing and became a simple, hosted meal. And thanks to the ideal­is­ation of the countryside, the event became more innocent.

The earliest reference appeared in John Harris' The Court­ship, Merry Marriage and Pic Nic Dinner of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren (1806), a children’s book. But such was its popularity that it soon found its way into literary works. In 1808, writer Dorothy Word­sworth picnicked with others on Gras­mere Island. In Emma (1816) Jane Austen gave a vivid port­rait of a rustic picnic on Box Hill.

James Tissot 
Holyday, aka The Picnic, c1876. 
Tate Gallery 

In the Victorian era, picnics were grand affairs! In 1861, a definitive list of upper class Victorian picnic fare appeared in Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Manage­ment. One couldn't eat outdoors without tables, linens, crystal and servants!

The development of new modes of transport (trains, cars, bikes) and the acceleration of social change made the country­ accessible to a greater proportion of the population. Be­fore long, their popularity had grown so much that picnic baskets were being produced for the mass market eg Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows (1908).

Though restoration of the French monarchy accompanied the ret­urn of picnicking to French aristocracy, the indoor version prev­ail­ed. When outdoor picnics eventually gained ground in France, they were regarded with sus­pic­ion. Perhaps because of a growing reaction against the Romantic ideal­is­ation of nature, they were not seen as innocent and whole­some. But as decadent. This was most ev­ident in Édouard Manet’s Le Dé­jeuner sur l’herbe (1862-3), depict­ing one naked and one scantily clad woman, picnick­ing with two fully dressed men.

As the outdoor picnic found its way to the USA, it remained a gent­eel pursuit of the urban middle classes. But unlike in Britain, its bucolic setting was associated more with a flight from civilisation than with childlike simplicity. Though still tinged with innocence, depictions of American picnics eg by Thomas Cole and Winslow Homer, tended to be craggier.

Pierre-August Renoir's 
Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881 
The Phillips Collection, Washington DC 

Now allow me to add important possibilities that had noth­ing to do with France. People have been eating outside since the beginning of time. The outdoor affair was like a lucky-dip meal; a group of people got together, each contributing to the meal. Cons­id­er Robin Hood and his Merry Men who informally dined outside on bread, cheese and ale. And during the C14th, the earliest picnics were mediev­al hunting feasts in England. These pre-hunt feasts were important, specialising in hams, baked meats and pastries.

Now consider that outdoor summer meals were very popular in countries with long, cold winters. The concept of a picnic was known in Russia, Ger­­many and Sweden be­f­ore it became part of English soc­iety. Russians loved holding picnics, partially because sunny weather was a rare delight to be treas­ured. Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) cited the experience in a number of his stor­ies, usually along a river or beach. The Romanovs had elab­orate feasts that richly fed dozens of people; my grandmother had Friday night left-overs, just for the immediate family.

Picnic at Freshwater NSW,  1895, centred around cricket
photographer Arthur Phillips
Collection: Powerhouse Museum

But in Australia, the hottest, most outdoorsy time of year was al­ways Christmas to New Year, when workers were given paid hol­idays and schools were closed. See the Australian picnic with young men and women: cricket stumps and bat were visible, as were the billy and picnic hamper. Kitchen items eg cheap versions of cups, plates and picnic cases, were ad­ver­tised in the catalogues of turn-of-the-century shops eg Anthony Hordens and later David Jones.

School girls enjoying a picnic at Hanging Rock

set in 1900 in Macedon Ranges Vic
Forward

Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967) was one of Australia’s most famous books and films. The teenage girls came from a classy private boarding school in the City.

Zoffany painted heroic Sharp family c1780

As well as individual achievements, the Sharp family functioned collectively. The son of an arch­deac­on, William Sharp (1729-1810) lived with his 3 brothers & 3 sisters in a Northumberland rectory, where they created strong family ties that lasted for life. Clearly the Sharps had a common value system of free think­ing; they neg­otiated the competing demands of an elev­at­ed social position with their commitment to social reform.

a musical water party on the Thames near Fulham.

The Sharp family by Zoffany, c1780. Wiki

 

The Union, William’s large, elegant pleasure boat, sailed from Kew Bridge in 1777 on its first voyage. As she sailed along the Thames to Reading, her passengers lived in great comfort with all am­en­it­ies. And the entire Sharp family gave fortnightly orch­es­tral con­certs on board.

Despite the boat and orchestra, William Sharp was not a gilded ar­is­tocrat of independent means, but a hardworking Lon­­don surgeon from an educated background. He was accomp­anied on the voyage by most of his siblings, dem­ons­trating the extent of the doctor’s pro­fessional success and his fame as surgeon to King George III.

The siblings were known by the art world as the subject of Johan Zof­fany’s celebrated group portrait, The Sharp Family. Will­iam, who commissioned the work in 1779, wanted the art­ist to depict the 7 sib­lings playing music on their Thames barge. The Zof­f­any master­piece com­mem­or­at­ed the concerts they gave on board their barge Ap­ollo at Ful­ham, when Sharps were at the height of their soc­ial suc­c­ess. Their harmonies were an apt meta­phor for the strong ties that bound them together.

 
How appropriate! Sharps were a famously musical family, who had played music together from early childhood and be­tween them master­ed a wide array of instruments. Youngest broth­er Granville Sharp (1735–1813) was skilled on the oboe, clarinet, flute, double flute, trav­erse harp & kettle­drums. William gave famous concerts at his City mansion, with per­form­­an­ces by the most popular virt­uosi back then; and the family hosted water parties on barges sail­ing along the Thames in summer. In the Sharp band, often led by the Italian violinist Felice Giardini, family members and profess­ional musicians played chamber music. To a rous­ing Hand­el overture, the Sharp barge was accompanied by many boats who sailed to enjoy the festivities.

Examine the painting carefully. Granville held his favoured flutes in one hand, his clarinet being nearby on the piano he was shown hold­ing a sheet of music. Beside him was his sister, Elizabeth Sharp Prowse (1733-1810), who was play­ing the harpsichord /forte-piano. Dr John Sharp was on the right and had laid his cello aside, next to Franc­es Sharp (1738-1799) with an oboe, in blue. James Sharp, an engineer, held a serpent brass instrument. James’ wife was Mrs Lodge Sharp, his daughter was Catherine Sharp (1770-1843). William Sharp was seen standing at the tiller, hat raised, wearing the Windsor uniform with its distinctive red collar. His instrum­ents were the French horns that rested on the piano. William’s dau­ghter was Mary Sharp Lloyd-Baker (1778-1812), his wife was Cather­ine Barwick Sharp (c1741-1814). Judith Sharp (1733-1809), music in hand, played the lute.

These amateur music­ians illustrated the transition between private music part­ies and public concerts in C18th musical life. The private world of the barge open­ed into that of an invisible audience list­en­ing from the bank to the open-air concert, a fashion set by Hand­el’s Water Music.

Johan Zoffany’s glowing depiction of the siblings was their defining image. But the family was not just about music. Granville Sharp was a  civil servant, philanthropist and a leading campaigner for the abolition of sl­av­ery. In 1772 Granville was visited and asked for help by a young African who had been sold into slavery. This eventually led to one of the great set pieces of Eng­lish legal history, deliv­er­ed by Lord Mansfield in West­min­ster Hall in 1772: the slave was freed since no English law sanct­ioned slavery. So Sharp co-founded the Soc­iety for the Abolition of the Slave Trade!

When Granville gave up his Ordnance Office post, he totally relied on his brothers’ incomes. Fortunately William was a noted surgeon. Was Granville’s commitment to the emancipation of slaves supported by his family? Yes! His political idealism began at Will­iam’s Surg­ery for the Poor, Mincing Lane; it was James’ membership of the Common Coun­cil of London that most supported Granville.

4 siblings contrib­uted to John’s char­it­ab­le enterprises at Bamburgh, which in turn pro­vided the model for Elizabeth’s philanthropy at Wick­en Park. The 2 unmarried sis­t­ers, Judith and Frances, enjoyed priv­il­eged positions in their bro­thers’ households in their adult lives. Judith actually tur­ned down two good marriage offers, concluding that fem­ale autonomy would flourish better in the household of a compliant brother. And when James became paral­ysed in 1783, 9 members of the extended family accompanied him to Weymouth for a seaside cure.

The Sharps were remarkable late C18th individuals in their own right. John, the eldest brot­h­er, established an extra-ordinary social enterprise at Bamburgh Cas­tle in Northumberland, providing free healthcare and education and subsidised food to the poor. Elizabeth ran a large estate in Northamptonshire on the philanth­ropic principles espoused by her brothers. James was a manufacturer, invent­or and canal pioneer.

 

William Sharp

surgeon

Granville Sharp
Clerk in the Ordnance Office and abolitionist

Thanks to,  and I recommend Ariane Bankes in Spectator Australia.

Maria Anna & Wolfgang Mozart: 2 geniuses?

Until she was 16, Maria Anna Mozart (1751-1829) shared equal billing with her brother Wolfgang Mozart (1756-91), 5 years younger. Musical partners and collaborators, Wolfgang and Maria Anna played music together before royalty, and were the talk of Europe. So what happened to her?

Wolfgang (L) and sister Maria Anna (R) were devoted to each other and ?co-writers of Wolfgang’s earliest work. 
FrontRowCentre

Maria Anna was the first child of Leopold Mozart, a musician and composer who had his daughter musically educated from a young age. Maria showed great talent, a child prodigy in both composing and playing. When Wolfgang was young, he was quickly engrossed in playing music with his sister. The film featured emotional images of this childhood bond, emphasising the siblings’ cooperation with music. Leopold recognised his children’s unusual talents; he soon had them travelling and playing concerts to the European aristocracy.

According to a new film Mozart’s Sister (2012), imagined the Mozart family's tiring life on the road from 1763 on, travelling by coach from one royal court to another. Together the wonder-children toured most of Europe. Contemporary reviews praised Maria, and she was even billed first on promotional posters. As a child, there was no issue with performing for an audience. But skilled singer, harpsichord player and violinist nicknamed Nannerl, was first seen as the family's infant prodigy. In the film, she was still performing, though increasingly side-lined by Wolfgang's growing fame. Her father bowed to social strictures for women, refusing to let her continue with violin or composing, while privately conceding Nannerl's talent to his wife. The teen fretted about her career prospects, but was forced to retire at age 17, was left at home, and was never to play in public again.

Having been forced to withdraw from public life because she was now a woman, the film explored how she was retired by dad Leopold and what happened to her music. She had been a musical prodigy just like her younger brother Wolfgang, so naturally she retained her love of music.

The two Mozart siblings, 

The Conversation

An amazing new discovery of her creative work is being uncovered through historians, musicologists, letters between siblings and other evidence. If confirmed, this new evidence suggests she may have contributed to her brother’s earliest works; a global search for her own works continues. The musical-mystery story unfolded around the world with historians following why her lost talent may have been hidden all this time.

This film came at a time, 2012, when many people were reassessing the nature of female authorship in the arts. The Mozart case was not an oddity. There were many other examples of women whose talent was obscured OR completely lost. Many people analysed the less well-known female creators of today, composers, musicians and conductors, as well as the very low rates of female participation in classical music today. In 2020-21 season a survey of the top 100 global orchestras found 5% of works were composed by women!

Writer René Féret's film was partly a feminist reclaiming of one of history's lost women, plus a revisionist version of Mozart's early life. The issues commanded attention, including a clear sense of the hardship and bitterness Mozart Sr put his family through. Marc Barbé and Delphine Chuillot were Léopold and Anna-Maria Mozart, the parents who put their children through a gruelling continental tour. Their 10-year-old Wolfgang/David Moreau was remarkable.

The person who felt all this most keenly was Mozart's elder sister, Nannerl, played by the writer’s daughter Marie Féret. She was reduced to the status of Wolfgang's accompanist, despite being a talented musician and having, she claimed, contributed to her brother's compositions. Then a quirk of fate led to her friendship with the King's younger daughter Louise, played by another Féret daughter, Lisa Féret. The exchanges between Louise and Nannerl were sometimes tough. But the two sisters’ performances had a kind of rugged authenticity that attracted.

Maria Anna and Wolfgang at piano, and parents Leopold and Anna Maria;

by Austrian artist Johann Nepomuk della Croce,
c1780; Mozart House, Salzburg. Wiki 

Maria Anna and Wolfgang were inseparable and often composed together. But this ended when Maria Anna turned 17. For women musicians in C18th, it was thought unseemly for a girl to perform in public, likening this public performance to that of a prostitute. Regardless of their skill, these women wouldn’t have any career prospects. They were even banned from playing musical instruments deemed unseemly eg violin and cello. Even though this was during the Enlightenment, any enlightenment was reserved for white men only. Definitely not to women! Yet Wolfgang continued pursuing music at will. Maria Anna’s musical talents weren’t even encouraged at home. Her life was only illustrated through her diary entries, which ware mainly filled with ordinary family events.

Maria Anna married Johann Baptist von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg in 1783 and had 3 children . They moved to St Gilgen in Austria near the Mozart family home in Salzburg, and continued to practise music daily. On her husband’s death in 1801, and now with an income and a title (baroness) in her 50s, she returned to solo concerts.

Mozart’s Sister was a documentary that functioned on several levels. A] It was a biopic that portrayed Maria Anna’s story by recreating her childhood. The narration and interviews highlighted her relationship with her brother. It was filmed in Austria and framed by present-day museum curators and experts. B] The film was a broader statement on the non-appearance of female composers.

Director Madeleine Hetherton-Miau’s created a hard-hitting documentary. The film offered a well-researched investigation into Maria Anna’s life, showing how the draconian attitudes that prevailed in her time condemned her to a lesser life than Wolfgang, even though she was equally talented. It also reminded of the importance of championing women musicians today, to avoid discrimination being repeated. The director was excellent in portraying this duality via the contrast of Maria Anna’s path with the brilliant young British composer Alma Deustger (b2005). Deustger has great skills in composing and conducting, but she was able to pursue her passion and make it her career. The film used a recent literary trend i.e discussions of how talented women in history were overshadowed by their more famous male equals, then overlooked totally.

Hester Bateman's neo-classical silver art

Bateman home and workshop
107 Bunhill Row Islington, London

Wo­men had long operated successful businesses in the early English gold­smith­ing trade. But Hester Needham (1708–94) came from a poor family with no for­mal education. At 24, she married John Bateman who worked in gold and silver eg watch chains. He died in 1760, then Hes­ter took over.

Bateman's house was in Bunhill Row Islington, the ground floor forming the workshop as was typical with Georgian bus­inesses. Bateman never re­­­married and took over John’s silver­smithing workshop, init­ially as­sist­ed by two sons, Jonathan and Peter, and an apprentice. Bunhill Row is now a Grade II Listed Building. 

  
In 1761 she regist­ered her own mark at Goldsmiths’ Hall London and over 26 years, she registered more marks. British hall­marks were a safeguard for purchasers of silver articles for hund­reds of years, and is still an important form of con­sum­er pro­tection. Examine Hester’s HB hallmark. 

check the hallmarks on Hester Bateman art objects: 

her initials, date, silver standard

By the C18th the term goldsmith was applied to an artist admit­ted to full memb­er­ship of The Goldsmiths’ Co. Yet the term was also applied to a wide range of roles related to the precious met­als industry, from refining and casting.. to being a plate worker. By the mid C18th the term goldsmith implied a retailer, while the term silver­smith referred to a manufacturer or artisan. Docu­ments relating to the Bate­man enterprise generally referred to Bateman as a gold­sm­ith.

In any case, by the later C18th the maker’s mark didn’t always signify the artist who made the object; it may have been the patron or retail­er. As the bus­­in­ess owner, Bateman was responsible to the Assay Office, the organisation ens­ur­ing that all legal require­ments had been complied with. Thus during the first period (1761-74) of the Bateman enterprise, little Bateman work was known, ? because the shop was busy with work commissioned by other silversmiths.

But from 1774 on, Bateman began purchasing pre-prepared light weight sheet silver from the Birmingham manufacturer Boulton & Foth­ergill, and focused on assem­b­ling, decorating and finishing works for sale. She took full advantage of new mechanised mass-production tech­nol­ogies eg the introduct­ion of steam-powered rolling machines to create much thinner gauge sheet sil­ver than available before. It also reflected the emergence of a new branch for silver, that of low-level mass production, which enabled Bateman and others to compete success­fully with the new Shef­field plate trade. Sheffield plate ref­erred to a technique developed in the 1740s of plating/fusing a copper alloy ingot with a thin sheet of silver to produce flatware and tablewares looking like sterling silver, but cheaper.

Note her broad range of dom­estic silver of elegant simplicity i.e wares for the table, including cutlery, salvers, cruet stands, jugs, salts cellars, mustard pots, tankards, tea and coffee services, civic and church pl­ate. The speeding up of the Indus­t­rial Rev­olution saw many families leaving the land and migrating to the cities for work, promp­ting a general inc­r­ease in education and wealth through­out soc­iety. And a rising middle class with strong social aspir­at­ions. The wide output of domestic wares by the Bateman workshop re­f­l­ected the so­c­ial change and Bateman’s servicing of a growing middle-class market

Despite tea having arrived in Europe earlier, by the late C18th it was still very exp­ensive. So the lady of the house pres­ided over the prep­ar­at­ion and serving of tea each aft­er­­noon, a desirable social ritual.

Bate­man understood that her workshop had to produce all the tea ser­v­ices elements: tea kettle on stand/samovar; teapot on a footed salver; milk jug; sugar bowl; sugar tongs; tea­spoons and lemon strain­er. The cups and saucers in tea serv­ices were preferably Chinese porcelain.

                                            

Bateman. Georgian silver cream jug, London, 1779.

pear shaped, pedestal foot, chased rural design,11.8cm high 

Antiques Atlas    

                      

Bateman. George III silver sugar basket, London, 1779.

Urn-shape, swing handle, vertical piercing alternating with bands of pierced cornflower, 

pier­c­ed cornflower footband, swing handle, crest eng­raved, cobalt blue liner.           

Afternoon tea prompted very changes for women of social standing. When her shop became successful, she specialised in tableware i.e table ut­en­sils for holding, serving and hand­l­ing food and drink. Working with grace­ful and refined shapes, her tableware includ­ed many types of cont­ain­ers, spoons and forks/flatware, knives and a range of accessories.

Bateman. Silver jug 1783

Waisted upper section with beaded rim, a domed lid with urn finial, 

mounted with fruitwood handle, applied bands of beading and circul­ar foot, 30 cm high 

Hester’s designs were increasingly influenced by late C18th Neo-class­ical taste, made famous by architect Robert Ad­am. Her designs ref­lected fashionable - oval, classical vase and helmet shapes, brig­ht punching, en­graving and pierced decoration of fol­iage, fes­t­oons, med­allions and shells. Many works were edged with fine bead­ing and surmounted with urn fin­ials. Machine piercing helped her produce large numbers of objects at fair prices and ensured rapid sales.

After retir­ing in 1790, the business was continued by her sons, Jon­a­than and Peter who’d serv­ed apprenticeships and were fully qu­al­ified silver­sm­iths. They continued a succ­ess­ful fam­ily ent­er­p­r­ise in central London, supp­lying elegant tableware to the middle classes. The sons were lat­er suc­ceeded by other family memb­ers who ran the bus­in­ess: daughter­-in-law Ann, Jonathan's wid­ow (worked 1748–1813), grand­­son William (worked 1774–1850) and great-grandson William Jnr (worked 1839-43).

Conclusion
I saw my first Hester Bateman silver at London Silver Vaults, showing all the best Hug­uenot and early C18th British silversmiths in London. I fell in love. 

Read Philippa Glanville & Jennifer Goldsborough, Women Sil­ver­smiths 1685–1845 (Thames & Hudson, London, 1990). I found at least 3 other famous female silversmiths in London in Hes­t­er’s era, but she stood out because of her 1] use of modern mech­an­ised pro­­d­uc­t­ion, 2] stunning out­put and 3] financial success! She antic­ip­at­ed soc­iety’s chan­ging expect­­at­ions and responded well. Renowned for her ornamental silver­ware and flatware, she is now seen as one of England’s most succ­essful late C18th silver­smiths. 

Peter, Ann and Jonathan's son William Bateman, London

Sterling Silver Tea & Coffee Sets, 1815

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