1720s-30s English houses & landscapes by Peter Tillemans (1684–1734)

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) A View of the Garden and Main Parterre of Winchendon House, Buckinghamshire, from the East, with Figures in the Foreground

Peter Tillemans (c. 1684-1734) was a Flemish painter, best known for his works on sporting & topographical subjects. Tillemans was born in Antwerp, the son of a diamond-cutter, & studied painting there.  He was brother-in-law to fellow artist Peter Casteels (1684-1749); & in 1708 the two young men were brought over to England by a dealer named Turner to copy Old Master paintings.  By 1711, he had joined Godfrey Kneller's (1646-1723) new Great Queen Street Academy of painting as a founding member, where Tillemans declared his speciality as 'landskip'.  He later joined the Society of St Luke (and was its Steward, 1725). Tillemans lived chiefly in Westminster, but traveled to execute commissions.  

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684-1734) Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, West Aspect 1730

By 1715, he had acquired his most faithful patron, Dr Cox Macro of Suffolk. In his country landscapes with gardens paintings, the houses often stand in a countryside brought to life by animals & hunting scenes.  He was employed with Joseph Goupy to paint a series of scenes for the opera-house in the Haymarket. In 1719, he was commissioned by John Bridges (1666-1724) to make about 500 drawings for the History of Northamptonshire.   These drawings were all executed in Indian ink, for which Bridges gave him a guinea a day & the run of his house.  Tillemans resided for some years at Richmond in Surrey, where is brother-in-law lived.  He also stayed at the home of his patron Dr. Cox Macro of Norton Haugh in Suffolk, where he died on 5 Dec. 1734.

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) London from Greenwich Park

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) Panoramic view of Chatsworth House and Park

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) Prospect Of Ashburnham Place Sussex

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) The View from One-Tree Hill in Greenwich Park

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) View of Chatsworth House and Park

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684-1734) Idealized View of Chirk Castle

  Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) A View of Uppark

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) East View of Newsterad Abbey, Nottinghamshire

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) A View of the Downs near Uppark including a view of the riding hill summerhouse

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) Little Haugh Hall, Suffolk

  Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) River Thames

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) View of Knowsley Park from the Riding Hill Summer House, looking towards Prescot Detail

1738 Unusual Gardens flanking the courtyard of this hunting-lodge castle

Charles Leopold van Grevenbroeck (c 1731-1799)  Arrival of King Louis XV (1723–1774) at La Muette Castle in 1738. Detai

The castle was built by Charles IX (1550-1574), who was obsessed with hounds & hunting & wrote a book on the sport called La Chasse Royal, which was published in 1625, long after his death. Charles IX would reside at the castle for the full hunting season. 

Charles IX around 1572, painted by François Clouet.

Families In Gardens & Parks by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)

 Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Mr and Mrs Carter, c.1747–8

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Conversation in a Park - Self Portrait with his wife Margaret 1746

 Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)  Mr. and Mrs. Andrews 1749

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Lady Lloyd & her son Richard 1746

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Sarah Kirby and John Joshua Kirby c1751-1752

 Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Unknown Couple

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) The John Gravenor Family 1754

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)  Self-portrait with his wife and daughter, 1748

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Heneage Lloyd & his sister Lucy

1500s The Ladies get equal time with The Nine Male Worthies

The Nine Worthies are 9 historical, scriptural, & legendary males who personify the ideals of chivalry as were established in the Middle Ages. They usually included 3 good pagans: Hector, Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar; 3 good Jews: Joshua, David and Judas Maccabeus; and 3 good Christians: King Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon.  They were 1st described in the early 14C, by Jacques de Longuyon in his Voeux du Paon (1312).  Here George Glover seems to concoct his own version of Lady Worthies.  By the late 14C, Lady Worthies began to accompany the Nine Worthies, although their identities often changed.

 George Glover c 1630 The Nine Woeman Worthys  Margaret wife to Henry the sixt

 George Glover c 1630 The Nine Woeman Worthys Artimetia

 George Glover c 1630 The Nine Woeman Worthys Bonditia

 George Glover c 1630 The Nine Woeman Worthys Debora

 George Glover c 1630 The Nine Woeman Worthys Hester

 George Glover c 1630 The Nine Woeman Worthys Judeth

 George Glover c 1630 The Nine Woeman Worthys Penthisilaea

 George Glover c 1630 The Nine Woeman Worthys Queen Elizabeth

George Glover c 1630 The Nine Woeman Worthys Zenobia

17C Woman - The Good Works of a Wealthy Widow

We have few depictions of women in the 17C British American colonies, but contemporary European prints allow us to see the hairstyles & fashions being worn on the other side of the Atlantic during the early years of the English colonization of America. 

Lady Lettice, Viscountess Falkland, née Moryson (1610-46) Engraving, frontispiece to John Duncon, The Returnes of Spiritual Comfort and Grief (London, 1648)  This is a shrouded, posthumous portrait of Lady Lettice, who was wife of Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland (c.1610-43). Cary was famous as an author & cultivator of the arts; he drew a circle of writers around him at Great Tew, including Ben Jonson & Abraham Cowley. He died for the royalist cause at the First Battle of Newbury during the English Civil War.

This excellent lady was daughter of Sir Richard Morison, of Tooley Park, in Leicestershire, knt. & relict of the celebrated Lucius Cary, viscount Falkland, who was killed in the first battle of Newbury. When that great & amiable man was no more, she fixed her eyes on heaven; & though sunk in the deepest affliction, she soon found that relief from acts of piety & devotion, which nothing else could have administered. After the tumults of her grief had subsided, & her mind was restored to its former tranquillity, she began to experience that happiness which all are strangers to but the truly religious. She was constant in the public & private exercises of devotion, spent much of her time in family prayer, in singing psalms, & catechising her children & domestics. She frequently visited her poor neighbours, especially in their sickness, & would sometimes condescend to read religious books to them, while they were employed in spinning. She distributed a great number of pious tracts. Lord Falkland left her all that he was possessed of by will, & committed his 3 sons, the only children he had, to her care. Ob. Feb. 1646, 2Et. circ. 35.
James Granger. A Biographical History of England: From Egbert the Great to the Revolution. 1769