Author: Richardson, Tim
England
Published on 31 October 2024 by Quarto Publishing PLC (Frances Lincoln) in the United Kingdom.
Hardback | 320 pages, 300+ colour photos
258 x 321 x 35 | 2116g
Smooth lawns, glassy pools, cool garden temples, mysterious woodland glades, evocative statuary ... the 18th-century English landscape garden offers a transcendent vision of Arcadia, a world of rich escapism peopled by gods and goddesses, young lovers and dairymaids, poets and philosophers.
This sumptuous, beautifully photographed volume celebrates this quintessentially British creation, arguably its greatest artform, taking you on a tour of 20 of the finest surviving gardens, including:Studley Royal (Yorkshire), a dreamy valley garden which culminates with a view down and across the ruins of a Cistercian abbeyStowe (Buckinghamshire), the great politically motivated garden of its day, boasting the ensemble masterpiece that is William Kent’s Elysian FieldsChiswick House (London), Lord Burlington’s experiment in neoclassical architecturePetworth (Sussex) – of ‘Capability’ Brown, who eschewed the symbolism of earlier generations but created instead his own powerful vision of pastoral ArcadiaHawkstone Park (Shropshire), designed to elicit a thrill of fear in visitors as they traverse rocky precipices and encounter live hermitsIncluding much new research and specially commissioned photographs, this is a book to dive into and be transported to an idyllic dream realm.