WILLIAM KENT

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
1. INTRODUCTION
 ⊷ William Kent was an eminent English architect,
landscape architect and furniture designer of the
early 18th century.
⊷ Kent introduced the Palladian style of architecture
into England with the villa at Chiswick House, and
for originating the 'natural' style of gardening
known as the English landscape garden at
Chiswick, Stowe House in Buckinghamshire, and
Rousham House in Oxfordshire. As a landscape
gardener he revolutionised the layout of estates,
but had limited knowledge of horticulture.
⊷ He complimented his houses and gardens with
stately furniture for major buildings including
Hampton Court Palace, Chiswick House,
Devonshire House and Rousham.

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 ARCHITECTURAL CAREER
⊷ Kent started practising as an architect relatively late, in the 1730s.He is better
remembered as an architect of the revived Palladian style in England. Burlington
gave him the task of editing The Designs of Inigo Jones... with some additional
designs in the Palladian/Jonesian taste by Burlington and Kent, which appeared
in 1727. As he rose through the royal architectural establishment, the Board of
Works, Kent applied this style to several public buildings in London, for which
Burlington's patronage secured him the commissions: the Royal Mews at Charing
Cross (1731–33, demolished in 1830), the Treasury buildings in Whitehall
(1733–37), the Horse Guards building in Whitehall, (designed shortly before his
death and built 1750–1759). These neo-antique buildings were inspired as much
by the architecture of Raphael and Giulio Romano as by Palladio.
⊷ In country house building, major commissions for Kent were designing the
interiors of Houghton Hall (c.1725–35), recently built by Colen Campbell for Sir
Robert Walpole, but at Holkham Hall the most complete embodiment of
Palladian ideals is still to be found; there Kent collaborated with Thomas Coke,
the other "architect earl", and had for an assistant Matthew Brettingham, whose
own architecture would carry Palladian ideals into the next generation. Walpole's
son Horace described Kent as below mediocrity as a painter, a restorer of science
as an architect and the father of modern gardening and inventor of an art.
⊷ A theatrically Baroque staircase and parade rooms in London, at 44 Berkeley
Square, are also notable. Kent's domed pavilions were erected at Badminton
House and at Euston Hall.
⊷ Kent could provide sympathetic Gothic designs, free of serious antiquarian
tendencies, when the context called; he worked on the Gothic screens in
Westminster Hall and Gloucester Cathedral.

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FURNITURE DESIGN
⊷ His stately furniture designs
complemented his interiors: he
designed furnishings for Hampton
Court Palace (1732), Lord Burlington's
Chiswick House (1729), London,
Thomas Coke's Holkham Hall, Norfolk,
Robert Walpole's pile at Houghton, for
Devonshire House in London, and at
Rousham. The royal barge he designed
for Frederick, Prince of Wales can still
be seen at the National Maritime
Museum, Greenwich.
⊷ In his own age, Kent's fame and
popularity were so great that he was
employed to give designs for all things,
even for ladies' birthday dresses, of
which he could know nothing and
which he decorated with the five
classical orders of architecture. These
and other absurdities drew upon him
the satire of William Hogarth who, in
October 1725, produced a Burlesque
on Kent's Altarpiece at St. Clement
Danes.
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LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
⊷ As a landscape designer, Kent was one of the originators of the English landscape
garden, a style of "natural" gardening that revolutionised the laying out of gardens
and estates. His projects included Chiswick House,Stowe, Buckinghamshire, from
about 1730 onwards, designs for Alexander Pope's villa garden at Twickenham, for
Queen Caroline at Richmond and notably at Rousham House, Oxfordshire, where
he created a sequence of Arcadian set-pieces punctuated with temples, cascades,
grottoes, Palladian bridges and exedra, opening the field for the larger scale
achievements of Capability Brown in the following generation. Smaller Kent works
can be found at Shotover House, Oxfordshire, including a faux Gothic eye catcher
and a domed pavilion. His all-but-lost gardens at Claremont, Surrey, have recently
been restored.
⊷ It is often said that he was not above planting dead trees to create the mood he
required.
⊷ Kent's only real downfall was said to be his lack of horticultural knowledge and
technical skill (which people like Charles Bridgeman possessed – whose impact on
Kent is often underestimated), but his naturalistic style of design was his major
contribution to the history of landscape design. Claremont, Stowe, and Rousham
are places where their joint efforts can be viewed. Stowe and Rousham are Kent's
most famous works.
⊷ At the latter, Kent elaborated on Bridgeman's 1720s design for the property,
adding walls and arches to catch the viewer's eye. At Stowe, Kent used his Italian
experience, particularly with the Palladian Bridge. At both sites Kent incorporated
his naturalistic approach.

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1. CASE STUDIES

● CHISWICK HOUSE GARDEN

● CLAREMONT LANDSCAPE GARDEN
1. CHISWICK HOUSE
GARDEN
 CHISWICK HOUSE GARDEN
INTRODUCTION

⊷ In the early part of the 18th century, inspired by the

architecture he saw on his Grand Tours of Italy, Richard
Boyle, 3rd earl of Burlington set about realising his vision
and creating a villa with associated garden all in the
antique manner.
⊷ It was a triumph. Chiswick House, his villa in the style of
Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio was
completed in 1729 and tourists came from Britain and
abroad to visit the gardens and view his collection of fine
paintings.
⊷ In the second of a series of features examining how the
gardens were created and re-created over 300 years,
author and garden historian Dr David Jacques looks at
how the Gardens’ creator perfected his great project in
collaboration with with artist, designer, architect and
garden designer William Kent.
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 RURAL CHIC – A FASHION FOR WILD AND RUGGED SCENERY
⊷ It was one thing to design a garden building with a
rugged setting, but quite another to imagine an
entire garden in this ‘rustic’ style.
⊷ Kent’s fertile invention imagined it, though. The
water at Chiswick was at first referred to as a canal,
but by 1733 it was being seen as a river.
⊷ At one end there would be a grotto/cascade which
would suggest the source of a mighty watercourse.
It would be an illusion of course, because the ‘river’
actually flowed the other way!
⊷ Burlington’s own idea appears to have been for a
Classical structure, but Kent converted him to a
rustic one with wild planting behind.
⊷ The fall of water was to be provided by a steam
engine situated on the other side of Burlington
Lane.

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 ONE OF THE BEST GARDENS IN THE COUNTRY FOR STATUARY
⊷ Kent wanted to convert the whole lower end of the water
to a rustic style, and in preparation certain hedges were
removed in order to allow sweeping views down from the
villa to the cascade, and also the Ionic Temple by the
amphitheatre.
⊷ To achieve this in full the labyrinth close to the villa would
also need to be removed.
⊷ Having had this planted less than five years previously,
Burlington appears to have been reluctant, but then
relented.
⊷ Kent had had his way, no doubt by convincing his patron
that having such a feature was another way to reinvoke
the antique garden.
⊷ The area thus converted was only a small part of the
Chiswick gardens – really only a snatch of a contrasting
feel in an otherwise formal garden.
⊷ Kent wanted to go further in informalizing the rest of the
hedges and surrounds of the river, but Burlington’s
interest had by then turned to the question of garden
statuary. He even ordered more terms to be set in front of
his yew hedges.
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 ONE OF THE BEST GARDENS IN THE COUNTRY FOR STATUARY
⊷ The lines of urns seen stretching away from the first-floor gallery in the villa, that is
northwards towards the hemicycle with the ‘Roman senators’, were Burlington’s
intention from 1735. He had designed a number of urn shapes already, and had
them carved in Bath.
⊷ The sequence started with a boar and a wolf under the north front, then urns
alternating with cypress trees, then sphinxes flanked by cedars, then more urns
down to the lion and lioness.
⊷ Together with statuary that he already had, and an accumulating number of terms,
the number of pieces in the garden exceeded a hundred.
⊷ It was amongst the foremost statuary gardens in the country.
⊷ This was the state in which the villa and grounds remained until the 5th Duke’s
changes in the 1780s. They were much visited, and entry was by ticket only.
⊷ The sequence was: the forecourt – the steps up to the piano nobile – the paintings
in the domed saloon and the rooms to either side – down the north front steps to
the garden – the collection of garden statuary.
⊷ Although Burlington saw these features as a lesson in antique taste, most visitors
emphasised the attraction of the white villa and statuary framed or set against the
dark foliage of cedars and yews – a delightful and tasteful scene.

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ONE OF THE BEST GARDENS IN THE COUNTRY FOR STATUARY

⊷ Meanwhile Kent’s experiment with a more natural style in the garden blossomed into what is called the ‘English landscape garden’.
⊷ Following Kent, its chief exponent was Capability Brown. It spread to most countries in Europe and even to the colonies in North America and Australia.
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2. CLAREMONT LANDSCAPE
GARDEN
 CLAREMONT LANDSCAPE
GARDEN
INTRODUCTION

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 CLAREMONT LANDSCAPE GARDEN
⊷ Work on the gardens began around 1715 and by 1727 they were
described as "the noblest of any in Europe". Within the grounds,
overlooking the lake, is an unusual turfed amphitheatre, which used
to form the centrepiece of an annual event called the Claremont Fête
champêtre.
⊷ Hundreds of visitors descended on Claremont, most in costume
(each year has a different theme) to enjoy four days of music, theatre
and fireworks.
⊷ Also within the grounds is the Belvedere Tower, designed by Sir John
Vanbrugh for the Duke of Newcastle.
⊷ The tower is unusual in that what appear to be windows, are actually
bricks painted black and white. It is now owned by Claremont Fan
Court School, which is situated alongside the gardens.
⊷ In 1949 the landscape garden was donated to the National Trust for
stewardship and protection. A restoration programme was launched
in 1975 following a significant donation by the Slater Foundation.
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CLAREMONT LANDSCAPE GARDEN ⊷ The Duke renamed the estate Claremont (he was then
the Earl of Clare and the Belvedere is built on a mount),
and it became both a refuge from his busy life as Prime
Minister and a villa where he could entertain his friends
and impress his political colleagues.
⊷ However, due to mounting debts, Newcastle
mortgaged Claremont to Robert, Lord Clive, hero of
Britain’s campaign in India.
⊷ Clive took possession in the summer of 1769 and,
feeling that his health was affected by the damp of
Vanbrugh’s house, soon set about demolishing it and
building a new house on higher ground, to the designs
of ‘Capability’ Brown, Henry Holland and the young
John Sloane. However, Clive committed suicide in 1774
and the interior of his new house was completed in a
more modest form in 1779.
⊷ Claremont returned to prominence in 1816, when
Princess Charlotte (daughter of the Prince of Wales
and heir to the throne) and her betrothed, Prince
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, chose it as their home.

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