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.

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

 

Shirley Temple, young film star oppressed

Shirley Temple (1928-2014) was born in in Santa Monica Cal. As a child Temple showed interest in dancing and singing so in 1931, her mother decided to enrol her in a Dance School Los Angeles. There she was scouted by Charles Lamount, Casting Director for Educational Pictures studio. Lamont & producer Jack Hays offered her a contract. They cast in a 1932 series of short films called Baby Burlesks (sic) where preschoolers reenacted famous films & current events and Temple was clearly the star. At 3 Shirley landed a role in her first feature film, The Red-Haired Alibi, 1932.

In 1933 a talent agent recognised her dancing in a hotel lobby and quickly signed her to Fox Film Corporation. Her key film came in May 1934 with Fox Studios' Stand Up and Cheer under producer-director Jack Hays. In Dec 1934, she starred in Bright Eyes with James Dunn. In one scene, Bright Eyes showed the toddler singing her signature song: On The Good Ship Lollipop in a very short babydoll dress, being held and touched by a dozen grown men. For the next few years Shirley made box office hits and was even honoured with a Child’s Acting Oscar. With curly hair and dimples, she captured America’s heart. Shirley made 40+ films in major studios: RKO, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount etc.

....

 

Stand Up and Cheer, 1934

 

Bright Eyes, 1934

Shockingly, parents weren't allowed on the set with their small child. Instead her mother made costumes, gave acting lessons and styled her hair nightly into ringlets. The film topics seemed inappropriate eg one of the first characters she played was named Morelegs Sweet Trick. The overt sexualisation of Hollywood's youngest starlet began immediately. Her role was in the film War Babies where she played a prostitute named Charmaine, aged 3! She wore an off-the-shoulder blouse and a nappy held with a huge safety pin, dancing for other children as soldiers who fought over her and give her lollies. In Polly Tix in Washington 1933, she was a strumpet sent to seduce a senator. She wore a bra and was filing her nails. She later turned up to the senator's office wearing pearls and told the toddler playing the senator she'd been sent to entertain him. Temple noted in her autobiography, Child Star, that the films were a cynical exploitation of her childish innocence, even racist or sexist. 

In Dec 1933, Temple signed with nearly bankrupt Fox Studios! Founded by William Fox in 1915, his Studios thrived in the silent-movie era. But by the early 1930s, it was operating at a loss, owed millions and share prices had plummeted. 2 weeks before signing her contract with the studio, she had been cast in Stand Up and Cheer with James Dunn, who played her father. While their parts were small, the pair was soon cast in more films. Little Rich Girl 1936 also had scenes of Temple being fondled by grown men in normal early-Hollywood paedophilia.

Although Temple was very popular, she was underpaid. Her family fought for her to receive just compensation as a child actor, esp since her brand was used in popular merchandise eg clothes, sheet music, soaps. Stand Up and Cheer’s premise was that depressiveness was the result of a lack of optimism, so auditions were held to find actors to cheer people up. Temple and James Dunn were partners in a dance sequence. Without enough time for her to learn new choreography, she taught Dunn a dance that she knew already, with a potential 7-year extension at $150 a week. They signed the contract in Dec 1933 and her mum was paid to accompany her on set. Shirley’s autobiography noted it was a cloud that hovered darkly over the next 7 years.

Temple & Dunn's next film was Baby, Take a Bow, premiering Apr 1934. She was also loaned out to other studios for thousands of dollars, many times what she was personally paid. But Fox Studios had struggled ever since the 1929 stock market crash, and in 1934, Fox merged with 20th Century Pictures to become 20th Century Fox. Vanity Fair wrote said: They didn't buy the Fox studio; they bought Shirley Temple. In her first year with Fox, she appeared in 10 films.

She was most valued during the nation’s economic crash, Great Depression. Her films’ jovial themes provided Americans with an escape, proving to be a big box-office draw for struggling audiences who wanted to see optimistic films. Pres. Roosevelt said: During the Depression, it was splendid that for just 15c an American went to a movie and looked at a baby’s smiling face.

But Temple was also abused. Rumours spread that she was actually a 30 year old woman posing as a child. Critics pointed to her stocky build & adult teeth, although the teeth came on a dental plate she wore on set to conceal her gaps. Some claimed that her famous blonde curls were a wig. In reality her ringlet curls were maintained by a torturous nightly process and a weekly vinegar soak that burned her eyes. These rumours caused the Vatican to send Fa Silvio Massante to investigate the claims of her being an adult.

The sexualisation of the child was awful on screen, but much worse behind the scenes. During the production of her many films, the child actors endured heaps of both physical and sexual abuse. Years later, in Child Star: An Autobiography, Temple described the Baby Burlesks series as a cynical exploitation of childish innocence. She explained that if any preschool aged children misbehaved on set, they were locked in a windowless booth called the Punishment Box, forced to sit on solid ice for awful periods. And the producers always forced her to work while injured, even after a serious eardrum operation.

In 1940 at 12 Temple met Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer producer, Arthur Freed, where he exposed him-self to her. After seeing her nervously giggle, Freed threw Temple out of his office. This horrid man went on to produce wildly successful films incl Singin' In The Rain, Wizard of Oz, American in Paris and Annie Get Your Gun. Being a known paedophile clearly didn’t harm his professional success.

Famous British novelist, Graham Greene wrote the worst film reviews. Referring to her Captain January 1936, Greene wrote "Her neat & well-developed rump twisted in the tap-dance" An 8 year old?? In a 1937 film review, Greene wrote "Wearing short kilts, she was a complete totsy; watch the way she measures a man with agile studio eyes, with dimpled depravity." Temple & Twentieth Century Fox successfully sued Greene for libel, but what damage was done to the little girl then?

 

Captain January, 1936

At 17, Temple was a victim again when producer David O Selznik of Selznik International Pictures tried to sexually assault her. She escaped him unmolested but this was not the last time she faced with horrid Hollywood men. Off-screen, Hollywood was clearly a sinis/ter place for young actors. Shirley still remembered the predatory behaviour she endured at 12. Her legacy still remains a staple of Hollywood culture, but don’t overlook her pain.

In 1939, California Child Actor's Bill/Jack Coogan Act was passed. Coogan had been an early child star when he appeared with Charlie Chaplin in The Kid, 1921. He earned a fortune, but it was spent by his stepfather. The legal battle led to Calif passing a bill that specified working conditions and ensured that 15% of a child actor's wages were saved in a Coogan account. But because Shirley’s dad became her (bad) business manager, of $3 mill that she’d earned altogether, she had only $44,000 left in her trust account.


Shirley Temple Black served under four presidents,
Politico.

Temple retired from films at 22. Despite once being Hollywood's best paid star, she had to continue working because most of her money had disappeared. Eventually she decided to look elsewhere and by 1967, she considered politics. She joined the Republican Party and stood for Congressional. Although Temple didn’t win, her campaign began a long career in public service. In 1974, she was appointed as US Ambassador to Ghana. Then as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia for Pres Bush where she played a crucial role in international diplomatic relations. She also served on the Board for major organisations eg United Nations Association, National Wildlife Federation, Bank of America and Walt Disney Co. In 1998, Temple was hon-oured at the Kennedy Centre for her role in early film culture. She was honoured by Screen Actors Guild and American Centre for Films for Children, although Temple’s ambassadorships were the best jobs in her whole life. In 2014 she died at 85.

Thanks to BBC, 16th Dec 2024

Small Regency metamorphic furniture

The 1963 Bulletin of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art noted a little-known London inventor, George Remington, took out a 14-year patent on a globe table in Dec 1807. A few months later, the rights to produce his invention were bought by cabinet makers Morgan and Sanders Co.

English globe writing desk, c1810, Morgan & Sanders.

This company had produced a working model of Remington's patent by 1809, when their first article appeared in the Ackermann's monthly Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics. A more complete description of this model was published in the  Ackermann’s Repository in Feb 1810. This second article called the model Pitt's Cabinet Globe Writing Table in honour William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806). He was the British politician who'd been the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at 24! He remained in office, on and off, until his death in 1806 and was famous for leading Britain during the great wars against Emperor Napoleon and his French armies.

Morgan & Sanders were already known as specialists in the field of metamorphic or multi-purpose furniture, producing a wide range of items that included armchairs and tables which converted into library steps or beds. I have examined this phenomenon before in the blog. What made the globe metamorphic? From the outside the piece looked like any other terrestrial globe. But when opened, the secretaire was complete with a series of small drawers and compartments, neatly designed and tucked out of sight. The writ­ing slope was also neatly designed, tilting upwards when in use but otherwise inset flush into the desk. 

The secretaire fully opened (top) and half opened (below)

Note the writing slope set flush into the table top, the pigeon holes and drawers

At a time of ongoing war in Europe, it seemed sensible to market this globe to army and navy officers; senior officers needed fully functional furniture that could be easily transported. But the Regency era (expansively defined as 1795 on) was also a period fas­cin­ated with mechanical science and besotted with world globes. Thus I cannot rule out the idea that the globe was designed for middle class families who simply needed elegant library furniture.

Some auction houses described the globes as Biedermeier in taste and Viennese by materials. At least one globe-shaped work table was auctioned as a Biedermeier piece, made in Vienna in the c1815-1820 era. Apart from the fact that the names Morgan and Sanders London were not inscribed on the lock plate with their patent number, what made the auctioneers believe it was Viennese?

Two factors need attention: date of manufacture and materials used. As Biedermeier was hugely popular between 1815 (Congress of Vienna that ended the Napoleonic Wars) and 1848 (onset of European revolutions), the dates might be just about be right. But possibly it was the maple veneer, bird's-eye maple, fruitwoods and ebonised wood that sounded Viennese. Britain’s globes would have been made from mahogany and satinwood.

The name of a Viennese craftsman, Josef Danhauser, was mentioned in a few auction catalogues. Was he a follower of Morgan and Sanders’s metamorphic furniture? Imitation was very common in the world of the arts, but we would need to know who came first with the globes – Morgan and Sanders in London or Danhauser in Vienna.

A globe-shaped work table

In all the globe furniture, the external design remained relatively constant - the globe shaped body had brass ribs with quadrant shaped doors, four bold downscrolled gilt OR ebonised legs, on brass feet that could be plain OR winged and clawed. The lower section of the globe sometimes had two drawers, built so flush into the mahogany that they cannot be seen in the photos.

But once opened, the space could have been intended for very different purposes - as a secretaire, a sewing table or a work table. The internal elements were naturally designed to suit the user and his/her purpose. A hinged writing and reading slide would not, for example, have been placed in a sewing box. Parquetry brickwork decoration would have been more attractive in a work table; in a secretaire, cedar lined pigeon holes would have been more useful.

To give an indication of size and value, Sotheby’s Amsterdam globe was 118 cm high and 90 cm diameter (Apr 2006 auction). At the Feb 2013 auction, Christie’s globe was slightly smaller - 109cm in height with a diameter of 84cm. This second globe realised £37,250 or USA $57,000.

Luton Hoo was built for the 3rd Earl of Bute by the neo-classical architect Robert Adam, starting in 1767. The magnificent new house soon became the perfect site for stunning Regency furniture. Two years after Sir Harold Augustus Wernher 3rd Baronet died in 1973, the house's treasures were sold off by Sotheby’s in London. Sotheby’s catalogue makes for important reading about Regency furniture. Readers might also like to locate B Austen’s article, Morgan & Sanders and the Patent Furniture Makers of Catherine St, in Connoisseur, vol. CLXXXVII, #753, Nov 1974.

** I have seen plenty of George III mahogany knife boxes before, but examine a pair of George III mahogany revolving cylinder cutlery boxes auctioned by Thomas Coulborn in Sutton Coldfield. Attributed to Thomas Chippendale the younger (1749–1822), they wrote that the use of the lion head above a pilaster terminating in a lion’s foot was consistent with the designs of a number of the leading designers of the Regency period. Amongst Thomas Sheraton’s later drawings in his Dictionary and his Encyclopaedia, readers saw revolving elements in bedside commodes with similar inlay and mechanical design. 

Mahogany knife boxes 1805, opened (left) and shut (right)

They are 60 cm high

Unfortunately the location of the actual designs for these amazing items remains unknown. But the success of their invention was undisputed; clearly created to cause delight in both their mechanical ingenuity and their great architectural presence, the knife boxes embodied the victorious spirit of Regency design. The revolving central section of graduated tiers of cutlery racks and the lifting lid were not literally metamorphic, but the viewer would not have been able to tell what the knife box was, once the doors had been shut and the lid had been lowered. 

Odessa: cultural architecture protected

Venice’s Teatro San Cassiano became the world's first public opera house in 1637. Soon, in the C17th & C18th, Central European opera houses had to be financed by rulers, nobles and wealthy people who used patronage of the arts for their own grand reputation. So the Russian Opera House in Odessa must have been a wonderful sight in Russia. Officially it was said to be at the intersection of history because it’s between Tchaikovsky Lane and Langeron St, while facing Richelieu St and de Ribas St. Each personality contributed to Odessa’s development. The first opera house, which opened in 1810, burned down in 1873 and reopened in 1887, was in Vienna Baroque style, an immediate city landmark. Performances included opera, ballet and concerts.

Opera House front

Opera House, National Academic Theatre

The National Academic Opera-Ballet Theatre was built in 1884-7 by Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner & Hermann Helmer. The grand Viennese Baroque style was the first one built in Novorossiysk Port on the Black Sea where electric lighting and central heating were used.

What famous people were associated with the Odessa’s Opera House area? Count Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron (1763-1831) was born into a noble Parisian family. He was one of many French émigrés in Russian service, having his first war experience in the America’s War of Independence. He then served at Caracas and Saint Domingo in 1782-3, before being promoted in the French army to Colonel of the Armagnac Regiment in 1788. Langeron joined the Russian Army besieging the Ottoman Fortress of Izmail in 1790. He was awarded a Golden Sword for Courage, and he remained in the Russ-ian service for life. 

Armand du Plessis, 5th Duke of Richelieu (1766-1822) was born in Paris, a royalist who enlisted in the Kingdom of France’s army after the start of the French Revolution (1789). de Richelieu entered the Queen Marie Antoinette's Regiment of Dragoons in the storming of the Versailles Palace (1789). He became an officer of the Russian Imperial Army, and a Duke upon the death of his father in 1791.  He had a deep knowledge of economics and diplomacy, and promoted the role of trade for the nation's wel-fare. Under his regime, the discount bank, exchange, insurance company, customs district, commercial court & quarantine facility proudly grew. [The Duc's father had been a representative of the Kingdom of Spain to the Kingdom of Naples until 1816 and then an officer in the Russian Imperial Army 1772].

This may have helped him get appointed Governor of Odessa (1803-14). In Richelieu's governorship, he received royal permission to establish locally funded educational institutions in Odessa. de Richelieu's greatest claim to fame was establishing the  Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa in 1817, located on the corner of modern Langeron and de Ribas Sts.  Richelieu was supported by the newly created Ministry of Education (1802) and the National Educational Statutes (1803). In 1804 2 educational institutions were founded as Richelieu Lyceum in 1817, was a private institution of learning where the students were drawn primarily from the aristocracy and wealthy merchant families. Richelieu Lyceum became an institution of higher education and basis for today’s Odessa National Uni. 

French was the only academic language until 1820, when Russian lecturers joined the Lyceum and taught in Russian. Duc de Richelieu was the Governor of Odessa (1803-14), dying from cholera in 1831, and buried in Odessa’s Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin. 

He returned to France as a peer in the Bourbon Restoration (1814-30). Odessa became part of Ukraine in 1920 when the Red Army integrated it into the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. And the Odessa Opera House was encircled by historically significant sites. The Auditorium was decorated in the playful late French Rococo. The ceiling, painted by Franz Leffler & restored by Mikhail Zandin after 1925 fire, was divided into 4 segments: medallions from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Winter's Tale and Twelfth Night. In the centre the large chandelier was beautiful.

The Opera House in Odessa endorsed their political, educational and cultural ambition, and social position. Walk down Richelieu St and see the gorgeous front view of The Opera House, then de Ribas St and Tchaikovsky Lane, and the façade faces Langeron St. José de Ribas was Governor of Odessa (1794-7), José de Ribas (1749-1800), Louis de Langeron (1763-1831) and Duc de Richelieu (1766-1822) were political leaders of late C18th and early C19th.

Holy Assumption Cathedral

The area surrounding the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre is rich in cultural institutions, protected by UNESCO. National Scientific Library (1829) in Pasteur St was the first public library in Ukraine. Its opening marked the beginning of the foundation of public libraries in all cities of Russian Empire. Today it is the leading socio-cultural centre in Ukraine and the research, methodological and coord-ination centre on library science, bibliography and document management. And see Odessa Literary Museum, Odessa Philharmonic and Musical Comedy Theatre. 

The area also features other cultural heritage sites, although some were recently attacked. Holy Assumption Cathedral in Odessa, founded in 1855 is one of the largest churches in southern Ukraine. From 1936 on it was the cathedral church of the Odessa diocese. It was consecrated by the ​​Archbishop of Kherson and Odessa. The 2-storey church was built at the expense of the merchants Jacob and Nikolai Cherepennikovs according to the project of the architect L. Otton. The height of the temple together with the bell tower is 56 m and the capacity is 5-6 thousand parishioners.

The temple consists of two sections: upper and lower, with three altars in each. The lower church was consecrated in the name of St. Nicholas, its southern chapel in the name of three Saints: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian and St. John Chrysostom.

Odessa National Research Library was the second public library in Russian Empire, founded in1829. Five millions books, periodicals, documents. This museum of old books is an architectural monument in its own right.

National Research Library

Medical University Library

Archaeology Museum

Stolyarsky Music Lyceum

rebuilt after WW2 bombing

Wiki

The stage door to the Opera House in Odessa is on Tchaikovsky Lane. The service entrance is at the back of the opera house. Pyotr Tchaikovsky was born into a Russian noble family (1840-93) composed first symphonic piece, an overture for Aleksandr Ostrovsky’s (1823-1886) drama, The Storm, which many critics considered to be his best symphony (1877-8) premiere of final opera Iolanthe (1892) visited and performed as conductor of his works in Odessa (1893). He died in St Petersburg.

A half of my family lived next to Odessa, but I promise I will never claim these cultural treasures for my grandchildren :)