A Bird's-eye View of Dunham Massey from the South
John Harris II (1715-1755)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1750 - 1751 (engraved)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1320 x 2007 mm (52 x 79 in)
Order this imageCollection
Dunham Massey, Cheshire
NT 932335
Caption
This is one of a set of four views of Dunham Massey by Harris. They were probably to commemorate the transformation of house and park over the previous half-century by Lord Warrington. They are a unique record of an 18th Century formal landscape, and they are also amongst the last paintings of country houses ever to be produced in the form of the 'bird's-eye view'. The artist’s name is given in an inventory of 1787, and confirmed by the inscription on an engraving of this view by Boydell, dated 1751.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, A Bird's-eye View of Dunham Massey from the South by John Harris II (1715-1755), circa 1750. Deer palings now replaced by brick wall. Some of the lead figures painted in white (actually to represent lead colour?), including the Spinario Atlas painted with yellow/gold (actually to represent bronzing?).The four views (DUN/P/68 - DUN/P/71) were probably to commemorate the transformation of house and park over the previous half-century by Lord Warrington. They are a unique record of an 18th Century formal landscape...and they are also amongst the last paintings of country houses ever to be produced in the form of the 'bird's-eye view'.
Makers and roles
John Harris II (1715-1755), artist
References
Harris 1979 John Harris, The Artist and the Country House. A History of Country House and Garden View Painting in Britain 1540-1870, London 1979, no. 178b