Denmark's Golden Age 1800-50: Hansen

The Golden Age (c1800-50) was an era of impressive creat­ivity in Denmark. Although Copenhagen had suffered from fires, bomb­ard­ment and bank­ruptcy, the centre of Denmark's intell­ectual life, first experienced huge fir­es in 1794 and 1795 which dest­royed both Chr­is­tiansborg Palace­ and much of the inner city. The arts took on a new era of cr­eat­ivity, imbued by German Romanticism. Danes from the arts and scienc­es became in­volved in a new era of Roman­tic nation­al­ism. Change became apparent, esp­ in painting. 

Wilhelm Bendz, another student of Eckersberg
Artist in the Evening at Finck's Coffee House 

in MunichThorvaldsen Museum, 1832

The early C19th was a tough time for Denmark-Norway. The crucial fig­ure was Christoffer Eckers­berg who taught at the Acad­emy­ from 1818-53, had an imp­or­t­ant in­fluence on the next gen­erat­ion, including Wilh­elm Bendz and Const­antin Hansen. While art had prev­iously served the monarchy and the Establish­ment, Henrik Steffens (1773–1845) and his st­udents real­ised that the moneyed classes were increas­ingly gaining pow­er and influence, now industr­ial­isa­tion was starting. Grand historical art gave way to more appealing and less grand art; genre painting em­er­ged, with int­eriors and portraits depicting the middle and upper class­es. Students liked to stud­y in Paris with Jacques-Louis David.

Copenhagen on Fire by CW Eck­er­s­berg (1807) showed how Copenhagen exp­erienced the fir­es. In the Golden Age, Copen­hagen in particular acqu­ired a new look as ar­chitects inspired by neo-classicism repaired much of the damage caused by fire in 1795 and by British bombardment of the city. In 1800 Hansen was charged with rebuilding the Pa­l­ace!

In 1801, because of the coun­try's invo­l­vement in the League of Armed Neutrality, the Royal Navy success­fully att­acked a Danish fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen. In 1807, on rum­ours that the French might force Denmark-Norway to close the Bal­tic to their shipping, the British bom­barded and burned large port­ions of Copenhagen. Then in 1813, because the country couldn’t support the war costs, the Danish-Norwegian gov­ernment declared bankruptcy. Wor­se, Norway ceased to be part of the Oldenburg realms when it was ceded to Sweden in Treaty of Kiel (1814).

Yet these crises provided new prospects for Copenhagen. Ar­chitects and planners wid­ened the streets where beautifully desig­ned Neoclass­ical buildings became smarter. With 100,000 people, the smallish city had been built within the confines of the old ramp­arts.

So the lead­ing figures met sharing ideas, unit­ing arts & scien­ces. The main proponent of Classicism in the Golden age was Constantin Han­sen who de­v­eloped a severe style, with large surfaces, in­sp­ired by ancient Greek & Roman architecture. From 1800 he was in charge of all major building projects in Copenhagen where he designed Copen­hagen’s Townhall and Court­house (1805–15), and rebuilt the Church of Our Lady and the square (1811–29). Interior scenes and small portrait gr­oups were also common, with dom­estic objects and furniture, often the art­ist's circle of friends. Danish-trained leader of Ger­man Rom­antic painting Cas­p­ar David Fried­rich was import­ant in spread­ing infl­uence in Germany.

The Golden Age launched a distinct national style for the first time since the Middle Ages. Its style drew on Dutch Gol­d­en Age painting, es­pecially land­scape painting, depicting northern light that was soft, with strong colour contrasts. An idealised version of real­ity.

Const­antin Hansen (1804–80) was born in Rome, son of portrait paint­er Hans Han­sen. The family soon moved to Vienna where Wolfgang Am­ad­eus Mozart’s wid­­ow was his godmother, and with­­in a year, they moved to Co­p­­enhagen. Constantin studied Archit­ect­ure at the Building Sch­ool of the Royal Danish Ac­ademy of Art at 12, but later changed to paint­ing, begin­ning his tr­aining under Christoffer Eckersberg.

Constantin was very in­t­er­­est­ed in literature and mythol­ogy, in­spired by Niels Høyen who want­ed to recr­eate a national hist­or­ical art based on Norse myth­ol­ogy. Høyen, who taught at the Academy, enc­ouraged his st­udents to do landscape painting, especially Danish coun­try scenes.

Paintings by Eckersberg, Ch­risten Købke and Constantin Hansen, using their Italian views, showed the imp­ortant as­p­ects which revealed the Danish Gol­d­­en Age creative process. In 1835 Hansen received a 3-year salary to travel abroad, taking him via Ber­l­in, Dresden, Prague, Nur­emberg and Munich en route to Italy, where he stayed longer in Ro­me, Nap­les and Pomp­eii, and travelled with fellow-Danes. 

Constantin Hansen
A Group of Danish Artists in Rome, 1837
National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen

Copenhagen Art Union commissioned a Hansen painting, A Group of Danish Artists in Rome 1837. This ser­ious work stood out among the pictures of carefree Italian-living that Danish audien­ces enjoyed. The Danish paint­ers and archit­ec­ts in the Rom­an hotel room were Hansen him­­self, Mic­h­­ael Bin­­­d­es­bøll, Mart­inus Rør­b­ye, Wilhelm Marstrand, Küch­ler, Ditlev Blun­ck, Jørg­en Son­ne were gathered to soc­ialise together; but the purpose of the assem­b­ly was to dis­cuss art! Arch­itect Michael Bindes­bøll (1800-56) was re­l­ating the exper­ien­ces of his Greek tra­v­els while the other artists list­en­ed with vary­ing deg­rees of attent­ion. Han­s­en was very ambitious, being insp­ired by Renaissance dep­ictions of artists, suit­ing them to cont­em­porary ideals. He also painted many al­­t­ar­pieces and portr­aits eg Fathers of the  Dan­ish Constituent Assem­bly of 1848. 

 

Fathers of the Dan­ish Constituent Assem­bly 1848

painted by Hansen in 1861

Frederiksborg Museum, Copenhagen

The Golden Age had also seen the develop­ment of Neoclassical Danish arch­itecture, mus­ic, ballet, lit­er­at­ure (eg Hans Ch­ristian And­er­sen), philosophy (eg Søren Kierk­eg­aard) and scien­ce. The Golden Age thus had a profound effect across life in Denmark and even outside.

End of the Golden Age
Danish culture suffered from the First Schleswig War (1848-51). Add­it­ionally, polit­ical reforms involved the end of the ab­solute monarchy in 1848 and the adoption of the Danish constitution in 1849. Finally note that the extension of Copenhagen beyond the old ramparts, during the 1850s, enabled urban exp­an­sion. 

Jugendstil - Art Nouveau in Prague

Jugendstil was the art­is­tic style that arose in Germany in mid-1890s and continued until WW1 loomed. It derived its name from the Munich magazine Die Jugend-Youth, which featured Art Nouveau designs. Two phases were seen in Jugendstil: 1] the early pre-1900 style that was mainly floral in character, rooted in English Art Nouveau; and 2] a later, more abstract phase, growing out of the Viennese work of the Belgian-born architect Henry van de Velde.

The fate of Alfonse Mucha (1860-1939), Czech painter, ill­ustrator and graphic artist, worked in Paris at the turn of the century, then some time in the U.S. He returned to Prague in 1913. There he particip­ated in the décor­ation of several buil­dings, being an active proponent of Czech modern art. So if some of the Prague Art Nouveau artists came from Vienna or learned in Vienna’s architectural schools, especially Otto Wagner's, Czech artists grew their way into Art Nouveau. Wander around AN sites in Prague and notice that Prague Art Nouveau artists had their favourite decorative pattern: a set of tree branches with flat and overlapping leaves.

Some areas of the town were designed in Jugendstil style. But out­side the city’s inner centre, the general state of the buildings did not look good. The broken windowpanes, the falling plaster and the Art Nouv­eau door han­dles repl­ac­ed by standard ones were certainly due to the Russ­ian legacy. But there haven't been many reconstruction programmes as there were in western Europe, so most or­iginal Art Nouveau buildings were not pulled down in Prague.

Sunflower Door, Prague, 1900

Quora   

A romantic walk across the Vlata on Charles' bridge will show the great astronomical clock (unique except for Strasbourg Fr­ance), rectan­g­le stone towers, part of the ancient city wall with typ­ical steep slat­ed roof and four peaks in the angles. For Classical Music lovers, there is a concert in every church every day. Till 1918, Prague was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and then became the capital of Czechos­lov­akia (and later the Czech Republic).

But from the later C19th, independence movements arose. These voi­c­es claimed political autonomy and also cultural autonomy. In any case, Prague was not as broadly spread then as it is today. So a lot of Art Nouv­eau buil­d­ings that are today in Prague were in fact in other little indep­endent towns eg Smichov. Modern Prague started in the 1920s, and like many other large towns of that time in Europe, the capital city grew rap­idly. The era was contem­porary with fast rural depopulat­ion com­bined with start of industry. All the city walls were razed during later in the century.

The Sunflower Door was part of a building designed in the Art Nouveau style that was popular ac­ross Europe at turn of C20th. This decorative style was charact­erised by its use of nat­ural forms, curved lines and intricate floral-plant inspired motifs. The door bel­onged to the Art Nouveau movement expressing love for nature, with a prominent sunflow­er being a central design element. The door was created in historic Prague, a city known for its wide range of architectural styles, from Gothic & Baroque, to Renaissance & modernist. The Sunflower Door contributed to the city's reputation as an architectural treasure trove and is a bel­ov­­ed detail among the city's many historic buildings. It was a beau­t­­iful example of how everyday obj­ects like doors were transformed into works of art in Art  Nouveau period, and remain today.

Hilbert House, 1904

Sidewalk Safari

This door was built in 1900 by Czech architect Osvald Polivka (1859-1931), associated with the Secession-Art Nouveau period in Prague. Expl­ore the feminine con­tent of image graphics. There is an ancient language structure that assigned either a feminine or mas­cul­ine attribute to an action. The person waiting to catch a ball is in fem­inine-passive; the ball thrower is in masculine-active mode. Sex­ual designations based on body functions have been part of lan­guage as a form of classifying & understanding the world.

Designed in 1904 by Czech architect Kamil Hilbert with period decorations by Karel Novák, this is Hilbert House. The nicely curved arabesque metal work integrates very well with the carving on this street entrance door. The arabesque style glass bord­er­ing etching adds an additional transitional detail between the interior and exterior of the window. The arabesque radial pattern above the door functions like other Art Nouveau doors.

Villa Henlenka 

designed by Alois Korda in 1903

facebook

  

Villa Henlenka was designed by Alois Korda in 1903. With its angle tower and floral glazing, this villa accumulated many Art Nouveau and tradit­ional features. Although it is the best example of Jugendstil villa near Prague, today the villa requires a lot of renovations.

                                      

Municipal House, 1905-11

architect Osvald Polivka
Prague Now

Municipal House (1905-11), designed by Osvald Polívka, was Prague’s most vigorously art-nouveau building. Every detail of its design and decoration was carefully considered and every painting and sculpture was loaded with symbolism. The city authorities wanted a multi-purpose building which offered not only public services but also cultural events eg concerts in Smetana Hall. The most symbolic nationistic event in Municipal House was Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence, 1918. Extrav­agantly decorated both inside and outside by leading Czech artists, it conjures up fin de siècle atmosphere. Restored in the 1990s after decades of neglect, the perfect decorations are in the restaurant.

Grand Hotel Europa was once the jewel-in-the-crown on Wenceslas Square. When the hotel opened in the 1870s, it was a symbol of luxury unprecedented in Czechoslovakia. Over the years, the hotel rooms became outdated, but the facade remained sparing with Art Nouveau details.  After renovation in 1906, the hotel once again luxurious.  

Royal Hotel Europa, 1906

Wiki

Hilbert House (1911) was sculptor and architect František Bilek’s studio and home, complete with semi carved stones and bricks. The whole building has beklen designed by Bilek from the furniture to the door handles, a perfect building to be used as a Museum about Bilek’s sculpture work. Brick work masonry was articulated by pillars in form of corn sheav­es, trying to express Bilek’s view on substance of life. See Bilek Villa in WanderBook.

Dancing House, 1992-6

modern and deconstructivist architecture

Wiki

 

Dancing House was designed by Czech architect Vlado Milunić & Canadian Frank Gehry on a perfect riverfront space. It consists of 2 cylindrical towers in daring shapes, it resembles two people swaying and dancing to music. One tower one bends at the middle, curving back, inspiring many to think of Ginger Rogers twirling about in the arms of Fred Astaire. In a city known for 1000 years of art & architecture, this modern building in Prague provided a sleek and modern contrast to the Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau standouts all around the town. The French restaurant on the top floor is very elegant.

Read Petr Wittlich's book, Art Nouveau Prague, 2000

Amazon

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.

Brisbane's noble 1886 Synagogue/shule

The first Jews in Brisbane were convicts in Moreton Bay penal colony in 1824 - home to repeat offenders who moved from larger NSW convict colonies where c1% of Moreton Bay convicts were Jewish. When Brisbane’s penal colony closed, a free settlement opened in 1842 with no ex-convicts. Instead some families came north from Sydney, seeking new prospects with Qld’s 1859 separation from NSW.

Byzantine minarets & circular stained-glass window 

Beautiful white building, the twin towers soared above the nearby buildings in 1906. 

Brisbane Synagogue in State Library’s collection 

In 1859 there were just enough Jewish men to form a 10-man minyan for worship but by early 1865, services were so popular that private homes were needed. More settlers came and the community needed a proper synagogue/shule. Most of the new Jewish residents settled around North Quay, meeting in each other’s homes on Sabbaths and holy days.

Ads Brisbane Courier, Mar 1865 said: All members of the Jewish community are requested to attend a meeting at Mr B Benjamin’s Queen St to form a Congregation. A committee was created, to find a fitting site and to recruit members. For 10 years the new group used a leased rooms in Queen St business buildings each Sabbath. Bulcock’s Building Queen St even has a historical wall plaque.

Congregation leaders approached the colony’s Surveyor General to secure land but unlike many Christian neighbours, Jews lacked the infrastructure & land holdings of Anglican and Catholic churches; Jews needed to raise building funds. But young Qld colony’s economy was unstable in the 1860s, closely tied to UK banking investments and agriculture. From mid-1866, a Depression caused financial disaster for many members who returned to Sydney bankrupt; the building fund ended. The other Jews used in rented rooms, buying ritual objects and helping fellow Jews who’d suffered in the Depression. However worship in a rented hall was uncertain eg women needing to sit upstairs.

Men's seating downstairs, women upstairs

 
Rev Jonas Myers moved to Brisbane in late 1865, as President, Treasurer, teacher and kosher butcher. A George St cottage in 1867 served as a synagogue and minister’s home, plus he travelled far up north in the Qld colony to serve their needs. But members who lived in central city liked Adelaide St while members settled in a commercial district Fortitude Valley didn’t. A long weekly journey by horse-cart was too long, so Rev Myers sold Adelaide St. Another man, business man Samuel Davis, built a small shule hall in the grounds of his big North Quay home in 1870, now Mater Misericordiae Hospital. But the Committee needed a permanent site.

In the 1860-70s many churches went up in Brisbane as part of the civilising role of the new colony’s architecture. Mean-while Jewish members renovated the Masonic Hall in 1876 and stayed until the new synagogue opened. Most early gentlemen’s social clubs excluded Jews from membership; only freemasonry’s universal outlook gave the chance for Jews to socialise widely. These men from Brisbane rose in the Freemasons’ ranks, incl President Adolphus Hertzberg.

To find a architect, some men offered design proposals. But the Building Committee’s decisions led to conflicts. The official Qld Government heritage register for the shule listed British Arthur Morry, engineer-architect-parliamentarian as designer in 1884.

Alas financial struggles continued when the Shule Building Committee asked for ambitious plans. Their minutes showed plans for a schoolroom, board rooms and upper Ladies’ Gallery, plus seating for 600 people within a budget of £3,000. Morry assured the committee that he could deliver their financial requests, but by Jan 1885 when the tenders were returned, the cost blew out. Using an image of the sh-ule’s planned design to raise subscriptions, they advertised in Jewish Chronicle newspaper in London and in the British Empire. The congregation was eventually able to raise £6,450 in private donations from local and overseas Jewish donors, incl from London’s Rothschild and Mocatta banking families. In July 1885 the Building Committee led by Rabbi AP Phillips laid the foundation stone to commence building, in a grand public ceremony reported in local papers. The Brisbane Courier newspaper discussed R’ Phillips speech about the importance of a fixed shule to the Jewish community, esp for the lonely immigrants.

In July 1886 the shule was finally consecrated in Margaret St. In the history of Qld Jewry, there was no more brilliant function than the historic opening of the new synagogue. It was full to capacity with congregants and public dignitaries, including the colony’s Chief Justice, Attorney General, Mayor and members of the Qld Legislative Assembly.

Raised platform & reading table holding Torah scroll while facing the ark.

Surrounded by prayer books for congregants to read in their seats

Holy Ark, the most sacred part of a synagogue,

resting place for Torah scrolls

 

Brisbane was an ornate & exotic marker of Jewish presence. The structure’s elegant design was referred to in reports as Byzantine style, like the public architecture across Europe deriving from C13th–14th Islamic design elements eg Spanish Alhambra. See a pair of minaret-style turrets out front, octagonal columns & horseshoe-shaped buttresses supporting the Ladies’ Gallery. The exterior had a Romanesque style ornate gable & circular tracery, while the interior had a Gothic cathedral style. The members belonged both as Jews and British Subjects in the colony.

As the community grew, school rooms were added in 1906; in 1920s a newly-built hall with a retractable roof was used for Sukkot harvest festivals. Then as time passed, a large new group of Russian Jews, culturally distinct from the older Anglo-German Jews, arrived in the early C20th. They had different identities, speaking Russian and Yiddish, and not feeling comfortable in Margaret St Synagogue. So they created South Brisbane Hebrew Congregation, their own timber shule in Woolloongabba, 1915.

 

When German Nazism rose in 1930s, some cultured artistic & religious Jewish refugees fled to Brisbane. Their experiences had a profound effect on the community, esp when Brisbane became the epicentre of WW2’s S.W Pacific campaign. Hundreds of American Jewish servicemen flooded into Qld and sought the comfort of Jewish religious practice in shule.

Stained glass

In 1955 a grand 2-storey Memorial Hall opened for social events and learning. In 1986 new and elegant stained-glass windows were based on Torah stories; and a Star of David behind the Rabbi. The shule remains a testament to the early pioneers who dedicated themselves to Brisbane’s community. Thanks to Morris Ochert for History of the Brisbane Hebrew Congregation, 1984

Jane Austen's Hampshire home and family

In High School I read and loved two of Jane Austen (1775-1817)’s most famous novels. But this was all fiction I assumed, and not Jane’s real life. Her father died suddenly in 1805 and left no property or income to his daughters. And since his wife and 2 daughters were not allowed to work, the women were left dependent on the support of family men. Luckily Jane's brother Edward had been adopted by his cousins, inheriting their estate called Chawton House Hamps and becoming financially secure himself.

Jane Austen lived and wrote in Chawton, Hampshire

built c1690 and later renovated

London Perfect

                                            

By 1807 Edward moved the women into his 2-storey red brick home, providing happy and productive years of Jane’s life. Each day included looking after Jane’s mother, writing at a small table, eating together, games with the nieces and nephews, piano playing, sharing long walks, going to church and sharing sewing with sister Cassandra in the evening.

 Dining parlour and fire. Jane's writing desk

Pinterest

Much of what is known about Jane's domestic routine comes from the niece Caroline Austen who in later life recorded the daily routine at Chawton. But little was written about the house’s architectural history. So now, 63 years after I read the book in Literature, it is time to examine her treasured and final house in the charming Chawton village.

The house was originally built in C14th as a small farmhouse, with later additions and renovations made over the years. The house was a thatched, timber dwelling built on the site for use as a farmhouse and then a coaching inn. In 1769 it was bought by the Knight family, distant Austen cousins, and became part of their Chawton estate. The Knights didn’t have any children themselves, so they formally adopted Jane’s brother Edward as their heir.

There were many minor alterations made by Edward Knight for his family eg the blocking of the window from the drawing room to the street, and adding a new Gothic window, looking onto the garden. The garden was extended for privacy, but retained a view towards Chawton Park and the woods surrounding the House where the ladies exercised.

The Drawing Room

 

The current structure resulted from renovations, blending elements of medieval & Georgian architecture. The exterior featured stone and brick with a steeply pitched roof and a prominent chimney. The interior showed the era’s artistry: ornate fireplaces, wooden panelling, intricate plasterwork.

Chaise Lounge

Destinations Detours and Dreams

Kitchen, 

pan360

In 1809, Edward offered his mum and sisters a small house on his Chawton estate. They moved that year, together with their friend Martha Lloyd, forming a cosy female household. Jane lived there for her last 8 years, but suffering from ill health in May 1817, she left for treatment in Winchester. She soon died and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Mrs Austen and Cassandra lived at the House for life. The house returned to the Chawton Estate with Cassandra’s death in 1845, and divided into 3 dwellings for estate workers, then as an estate office and a working men’s club.

In 1940 a local founded the Jane Austen Society to try to save the House. The Society attracted a patron, Mr TE Carpenter; he personally bought the House and bequeathed it to the nation as a permanent memorial to his son who’d been killed in action in WW2. Carpenter created the Jane Austen Memorial Trust to run the House as a Museum, and it was formally opened by the Duke of Wellington in July 1949. Jane Austen Society also built up the collections and funded the building renovations. In particular major roof repairs in 2021-2, via Historic England and the Historic Houses Foundation, keep the building watertight.

Since then, more parts of the House have been restored, the interior being restored to the time when the Austens lived there. Today Jane Austen’s House is a Grade I listed site, a certified Museum and an important literary site. It holds a major collection of Jane Austen’s treasures eg her loved jewellery, first editions of her books, personal letters, textiles, paintings and portraits of her friends and family, and the tiny table at which she wrote her famous novels. There’s also a beautiful cottage garden.

It was here her six novels of manners, ground-breaking at the time, critiqued the landed gentry of Regency England. Sense and Sensibility, published in 1811, was her first full-length; Pride and Prejudice 1813, and two more novels published in her lifetime: Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816). Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published postdeath in July 1817. Most of the places Jane referenced in her novels were places she lived in, visited or was inspired by. Most of her letters were burned but from those that survived, she was not a boring writer. She had a sharp wit, and she wasn't afraid to use it, especially in private

Persuasion by Austen, 1817

Amazon

Visit the rooms where she lived and wrote; see her writing table, jewellery, letters and first editions of her novels. Explore the pretty cottage garden, play traditional garden games, enjoy Regency clothes and see bonnet designing!

Hampshire and surrounding counties

Why the Thames Frost Fairs ended, 1814

Frost on the Thames, Samuel Collings, 1788-9.
Credit: Sharon Lathan

Using the ice for leisure activities must have had a  happy history for many Londoners. The River Thames has frozen over many times in the last 700 years, and festivals known as the Thames Frost Fairs sprang up on the river. The first recorded time people took to the frozen riv­er for organised activities was 1309, but a frozen river was unpredictable. It only froze c1 year in 10, except for 4 winters during 1649-66.

The Frost Fair of 1683
The History Press

Until removing the medieval London Bridge in 1831, there were 24 winters in which the Thames in London had frozen over. The river froze more often upstream, beyond the reach of the tide, especially over the weirs. The last big freeze of the upper Thames was 1962–3.

The Thames did not totally freeze over in the London area for centuries. Clearly the river was wider and shallower pre-1831 AND it had not yet been embanked. But mostly the river had been impeded by the Old London Bridge structure. When chunks of ice got caught between the 20 arches, it slowed the water flow, making it more likely to freeze over (for up to two months at a time).

The first big Frost Fair was in winter 1607-8. Once the Thames froze, Fair traders grabbed their chance; dozens of shops popped up overnight. Unlicensed gambling, games, drinking and dancing were held at the fairs, along with stalls selling food and drink, skittle alleys and fair-ground rides. Cheap souvenirs were available and printers set up their presses, making cards & popular sheet-music. Vendors sold a very hot alcohol made of wormwood wine and gin: purl. People enjoyed bull-baiting, puppet shows, bowling and ox-roasting. Boys played ice football games.

It was not until Jan that people started setting up camp. Pubs located on both banks of the river made a fortune during Frost Fairs. The most famous was Blanket Fair, held in 1683-4. Diariest John Evelyn wrote that whole streets of booths were set out on the Thames. He crossed the ice to dine with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth, and again in his coach, from Lambeth to Horseferry at Millbank. The ice had now become so thick as to bear streets of booths in which they roasted meat, and diverse shops of wares eg fruit, shoes, books, toys. Hackney coaches carried fares from Somerset House and the Temple to Southwark. Fashionable men in dresses promenaded with wigs and swords, & ladies shopped briskly. The drink­ing tents were filled by female companions, dancing reels to the sound of fiddles, while others sat round large fires. Tea, coffee and edibles aplenty!

Londoners might have been rugged citizens back then, but even so, the Frost Fairs sometimes lasted only a few weeks, and only in cold wint­ers. People had to be aware of rapid thawing, and the potential loss of life and property eg in the fair of 1739 a whole band of ice sank and swallowed up tents, businesses and people. In 1789 a ship was anchored to a riverside pub in Rotherhithe, steadily tied until the ship swung in the melting night ice. The rigid cables carried away the beam, levelled the house & killed 5 people asleep.

Most were held between the C17th-early C19th in the Little Ice Age (C16th-19th), when the river most froze over, though still rarely. At that time, British winterw were more severe than now and the river was wider and slower, further impeded by 19 piers of the medieval Old London Bridge which were removed some years later.

Frost Fair on the River Thames London, 

print, 1814

The British Museum

The 1814 Fair, the worst winter in living memory, ended when the ice began to break Feb 5th, after only 4 days, resulting in deaths. Even though one of the highlights in 1814 had been an elephant being led across the ice to show the river was safe!! Nonetheless this was the last ever London Frost Fair! The Fairs stopped because A] the climate grew milder in 1815. And because of two other important events! B] Old London Bridge was demolished in 1831 and replaced with a new bridge with wider arches, allowing the tide to flow more freely; and C] the river was incrementally embanked later. All of this made the river less likely to freeze. When the new London Bridge opened in 1831, it only had 5 arches. So the Thames never froze over in London again, despite it reaching -20C in very cold winters.

As Europe began to emerge from the Little Ice Age, and globally temperatures began to rise, ice became an ever-rarer sight on the Thames. There was nearly a fair during the severe winter of 1881, when it was expected by many that a Frost Fair would again be held on the Thames. But no.

People on the frozen River Thames, Twickenham, 1881 but there was no Fair.

The National Archives,

The river last fully froze in 1963, and although some Londoners skated, it could no longer host a Frost Fair.

Mt Barker WA: history, architecture, wine

Federation-style Plantagenet Hotel

built 1912-4

Mt Barker is 360 ks south of Perth, Western Australia, in the shire of Plantagenet. Fr­amed by the Stirling and Porongurup Ranges, Mt Barker is the ideal base to expl­ore the surround­ing mountain country, wildflowers, great coast, na­tional and re­g­ion­al parks, and wineries.

                                  

Chapel at St Werburgh’s.

built 1873

In 1836 George Egerton-Warburton, a lieutenant in 51st Reg­im­ent, arrived in Albany WA. He sold his commission later, return­ing to Albany where he married and settled. In 1872 he received £550 from his eldest brother, Squ­ire of Arley Cheshire to build a Chapel at St Werburgh’s. The Chapel was dedic­at­­­ed to St Wer­bur­gh, a C7th Engl­ish Abbess who was a daughter of Wul­f­ere King of Merc­ia and 3rd Abbess of Ely. Artisans completed the building in 1873 and Bishop Hale consecrated the Chapel in 1874. The walls were made of clay plug and the roof of shingles. An Albany carpenter did the wood­work, using local she­oak and jarrah, whereas the iron­work was made in the family forge. Some of the materials need renovation. 

Wine tasting

Mt Barker is a starting place for travellers exploring the Great Southern Wine Region. This became an important region, producing ov­er a third of the state’s wine. In 1859 George Egerton-Warburton first pl­an­t­­ed vines and soon bott­led the first vintage. In the inter-war era, the Mt Barker region successfully made table wines in the light European style. In the growing-season, the Mt Barker region has warm sunny days, cool nights, excellent fruit-ripening and acidity-ret­ain­ing conditions. These conditions cr­eate wonderful intense wines, and I loved the tasting in the wineries!!

Mt Barker hosts yearly fest­ivals and events, incl Grapes and Gallops, Graze Mt Barker and Taste Great Southern Festival.

Police Station Museum

Police stables

changed to a lockup

There are some fascinating historic build­ings eg the historic Police Station Museum Complex built by convict labour in 1868, are part­ of this rich heritage. The Old Police Station was used un­t­il 1908 when a new station was built next door. The police hor­se stables were div­id­ed off as a lockup and a Court House of­f­ice was added in 1919.

Surrounded by lovely lawns and gard­ens, the Plantagenet Hist­or­ical So­ciety opened the cottage as a Mus­eum in 1968, furnishing it with lo­cally donated objects. In 1971 the Pion­eer Room was built to dis­p­lay more artefacts, in 1985 and 1987 the cottage and stables were re­stored, and in 1994 the Napier Creek one-teacher schoolroom was mo­v­ed to the Museum. In 1997 the second Po­l­ice Station and Court Room were acquired. And an apple picking shed has been assemb­led in honour of the apple industry's historical contribution.

Police duties included having a change of horses ready for the mail coach which operated from Albany to Perth. They also patrolled as far as Esperance (400+ ks) on horseback, also doing the census and rep­orting on weather.

At the Old Police Museum, the main and out-buildings nest in beautiful landscaped gardens, with structures covered in colour­fully flowered creep­ers, giving an old fashioned village look. Any­one visiting the Museum comp­lex with an inter­est in his­t­or­ical heritage sh­ould allocate a few hours. There’s a wide ran­ge of hist­or­ic­al arte­facts and images spread around.

The Plantagenet Hotel was a two st­orey pub built by the Sounness fam­ily in 1912-4 with Feder­at­ion style ch­ar­acter. The veranda posts and balcony’s ap­p­le motifs depicted their link to large apple orch­ards in the area in the early part of the century. It took ov­er the licence from the origin­al Park Hotel when it was delicensed in WW1.

In 1996 the hotel was smartened up so it would continue to be a soc­ial gathering place for the local comm­unity and visitors. The large open fire in the lounge area is a beautiful feature on cool Mt Bar­ker ev­enings and the wide veranda is for en­joy­ing pre dinner drinks. Yet another of the many historical land­mark jewels of the area!

Art Gallery

The Gallery & Arts Centre is where artists can create, exhibit or sell their paintings, quilts, jewellery or pottery. The Gallery runs the Art Trail and the Plantag­en­et Art Prize, and runs a yearly fund-raising exhibition. And they hold solo exhibitions at Mitchell House in the little pink building that once was a post office. Here cours­es are run in Drawing, Painting, Pottery, Hat Mak­ing, Weaving, Felting and Craft.

Mt Barker Railway Station

built 1883

The rail line southwards from Mt Barker Junction to Mt Barker was const­ructed by Messrs Walker & Swann who had previously built an Ad­el­aide line. The sub­stantial stone station buildings were built from Aldgate freestone in 1883, including a Stationmaster's quarters at the southern end. Ceremoniously opened by the Gov­­er­nor in 1883, Mt Barker passenger facilities were still in place into the 1970s. At the northern end were timber refreshment rooms which were used up until 1963, with white linen laid out un­d­er the poplar trees. The Dis­trict Council of Mt Barker restored the historic Railway Station building to coincide with the transfer of SteamRanger from Adelaide in 1996 and they re-planted the turn-of-the-century gardens.

Mt Barker Rolling Stock Depot took the south of the station first used as a goods yard, and incorporated the original bluestone goodsshed. New Depot has been operating since May 1996, while the heritage goods shed was retained as a storage area for Track Maintenance. My young sons loved it.

ES&A Bank building, erected in 1928 

Later converted to a bookshop

Photo credits: Photographs of Perth and the South West of Western Australia 

Langton Vineyard in Mount Barker

Wine Searcher

lyrical Russian artist: Isaac Levitan

Lithuanian Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900) was born in Kovensky Province, into a poor but well-educated Jewish family. His fat­her was a rabbi and foreign language teacher, but financ­ially struggled to support his wife and four children. Thank you to Tretyakov Gallery Magazine for a series of excellent essays.

 Tsar Al­exander III (reigned 1881–1894) strengthened the Pale of Settlement Laws and en­sured the removal of all Jewish people living in large cities in Russia, especially Moscow, St Peters­burg and Kiev. Clearly life for many Russian Jews in the late 1800s was miserable, including for the Levitans. So the family wanted to move to Moscow… but Moscow was not within the Pale!!

Autumn Day Sokolniki 1879

Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Still, Isaac and his brother’s artistic interests were en­cour­ag­ed and both boys enrolled in Moscow’s School of Painting, Sculp­ture and Archit­ecture - Adolf in 1871 and Isaac in 1873. Sadly the children lost mum in 1875 and dad in 1877. Isaac was left penniless and homeless, sleeping either with relatives or in the Moscow Art School’s classrooms. Fortunately the School waived the rest of his tuit­ion fees.

His best teacher took him on as an apprent­ice, to provide monetary aid. Alexei Savrasov (1830–1897) was a patient teacher who headed the Landscape Dept at the Moscow School of Painting. He was also arguably the most expressive of the Russian landscape painters of the later C19th.

Another inspiration was Savrasov’s suc­cess­or Vasily Polen­ov (1844-1927), whose serene lyrical land­scapes rubbed off on the young Levitan. During his ten years at the Art School, Lev­itan was a regular visitor at Polenov’s country house. There he drew, painted and developed warm friendships.

Golden Autumn Slobodka, 1889
State Russian Museum, St Petersburg

Other key influences on Levitan’s style included the Rus­sian teacher Vasily Perov (1834–82), French painters of the Bar­b­­izon school of landscape painting, and poetic classical real­ist Camille Corot (1796-1875).  Examine eg Autumn Day Sokolniki 1879 where a woman was walking care­free in the country side near Moscow. Levitan’s attitude towards nature was akin to the works of Anton Chekhov, who had become his friend. Autumn Day Sokolniki, painted at 19, was bought by famous philanthropist-art coll­ector Pavel Tretyakov.

Autumn Landscape with Church, 1890
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

One of Levitan’s pastels featured beautiful autumn yellows against a dull backdrop of greys and other weak colours. The Autumn Landscape, painted in 1890, showed the church in the background. It was bought by Pavel Tretyakov.

Of course Levitan’s passion for poetry and music were very important. Plus throughout his short life he was prone to depression. Out of these complex ex­periences, Levit­an’s "mood landscapes" took on a poetic and em­otional quality. 

Levitan first showed his work at an exhibition with Moscow’s Itinerant Wanderers, re­ceiving his first recognit­ion from the press. By 1884 the Wander­ers had offered Levitan full membership in their group, so he could exhibit regularly.

Even though Savrasov was fired as a lecturer due to his alcoh­ol­ism, Levitan continued to seek his advice. In 1883, Levitan was ready to graduate and expected to receive a first-class hon­our for one of his best landscape paintings. The diploma did not come but later Levitan began teaching landscape painting at the Moscow School of Painting.

 

Evening Church Bells 1892
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

In the mid 1880s Levitan’s finances improved. One of the best landscape artists among the progressive Itinerant Wand­erers, his main contribution to Russian art was atmos­pheric landscape, mastering colour and shade. Although the depiction of light was crucial to his com­pos­itions, Levitan was a realist rather than an Impress­ion­ist. 

Pastoral landscapes, human-free, were ch­aracteristic of his work. Though his late work displayed Impress­ionist elements, his palette was generally muted and Savrasovian. For examples of his landscapes, see Secluded Monastery 1890. The Road to Vladimir 1892 was a rare example of social hist­or­ical landscape and see evocative works like Evening Church Bells 1892, Golden Autumn 1895, Spring Flood 1897 and the small painting Reindeer 1895. All were bought by Pavel Tretyakov and are in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, a treasury of Russian fine art.

Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, 

GW2RU

Levit­an was interested in the writings of the new intellectual lumin­ar­ies, writing to Sergei Diaghilev that he lay for days in a forest and read pessimistic German philosopher Schopen­hauer. So we might have expected a hushed, almost melanch­olic reverie. Above the Eternal Peace 1894 showed the artist’s meditations about the transience of human being. Levit­an painted the infamous road, along which convicts were marched to Siberia.

Above Eternal Peace 1894
Tret­yakov Gal­lery

Levitan was an active participant in artistic life; he taught at the Moscow School of Painting, where had trained, was actively involved the Moscow Club of Lit­er­ature and Art, and exhibited regularly with the Munich Secession (1892).

Isaac Levitan’s career lasted for c20 years only, but within this short time he created more than other Rus­sian landscape painters. Levitan’s most famous late 1890s paint­ings include Even­ing on Volga, Spring High Water and others. Levitan did not join modern art and remained true to realism. See his quiet twi­lights, moon lit nights and sleeping villages eg Haystacks Twilight 1899 and Sunny Day 1898.

If his earlier works were intimate and lyrical, his mature art became philosophical, expressing his med­it­ation about man and the world. His last works were increas­ingly filled with light, reflecting tranquillity and the eternal beauty of his beloved Russian Motherland. These pictures were loved by the intellectuals of the time, for they rep­resented the purest specimen of the Russian mood landscape.

Levitan was single, though many women liked him. In 1900 he died at 39 and was buried in Moscow's old Jewish cemetery. He left 40 unfin­ished paintings and 300 sketches.

 

Reindeer 1895
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The Jewish population in Russia had grown to 5.6 million by the turn of the century, home of my own family. So I was always a Rus­s­ian tragic, now even more so. The work of Isaac Levitan belonged to the Golden Age of Russian culture, comparable with the works of such classics like Anton Chekhov, Pyotr Tchaik­ovsky and Kon­st­antin Stanislavsky. A Tel Aviv street was named after Isaac Lev­itan. Lots of his works, less known in Russia today, are now displayed in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

 

Isaac Levitan, photographed 1880s.