View of the lake-edge with an urn at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, Plate II from the Wimpole Red Book
Humphry Repton (1752 - 1818)
Category
Architecture / Drawings
Date
1801
Materials
Watercolour
Measurements
214 x 260 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 206227
Summary
Humphry Repton (Bury St Edmunds 1752 – Romford 1818). View of the lake-edge with an urn at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, 1801, inscribed 'No.II', watercolour (214 x 260mm)
Full description
With this view, Repton renders the setting of Brown's artificial lakes even less natural with the introduction of elements from the garden: the neat gravel path at far left, the artfully placed chairs, and the urn was one of those that Repton intended moving from Greening's 'eyetrap' (NT 206197). He justifies this arrangement as follows: 'There are certain situations in which some object is absolutely necessary to break the monotony of green, and it is no where more desirable than in those dark recesses of water where it may be doubled by reflection. With this view I have supposed a Vase placed in one the bays - sketch No. II - where a Painter's eye will instantly be aware of the great importance which may be derived from an Urn so placed or even a garden chair upon the margin of the water'. John Peltro (?1760 - 1808) engraved this view for inclusion in William Peacock's 'The Polite Repository' for March 1803[1] [1] David Adshead, Wimpole Architectural drawings and topographical views, The National Trust, 2007, p. 104, cat. no.198 Catalogue entry adapted from David Adshead, Wimpole Architectural drawings and topographical views, The National Trust, 2007
Provenance
Philip Yorke, 3rd Earl of Hardwicke, KG, MP, FRS, FSA, (1757–1834); bequeathed by Elsie Kipling, Mrs George Bambridge (1896 – 1976), daughter of Rudyard Kipling, to the National Trust together with Wimpole Hall, all its contents and an estate of 3000 acres.
Marks and inscriptions
Top right: No. II
Makers and roles
Humphry Repton (1752 - 1818), landscape architect
References
Adshead 2007: David Adshead, Wimpole Architectural drawings and topographical views, The National Trust, 2007, p.101, no. 193 Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire 1991 [The National Trust; David Souden] 1991, p.79