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Creator:
Jean B. C. Chatelain, 1710–1771
Title:
A View of the Rotunda in the Garden at Stowe, Buckinghamshire
Additional Title(s):
The Rotunda and the Queen's Theater, Stowe
Date:
1753
Materials & Techniques:
Watercolor and graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 9 1/8 x 12 3/4 inches (23.2 x 32.4 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.4.1058
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
architectural subject | columns | gardeners | gardens | pool | rakes | rotundas (interior spaces) | statuary | statues | trees | views | water
Associated Places:
Buckinghamshire | England | Europe | Stowe | Stowe Landscape Gardens | United Kingdom
Associated People:
Venus
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:7977
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A well-known teacher, draftsman, and engraver of landscapes, Chatelain often assisted topographical landscape artists with their work. This drawing was part of a series of views of Stow engeraved in 1753 by George Bickham Jr. for his Sixteen Perspective Views, Together with a General Plan of the Magnificent Buildings of Stowe. While not an architect himself, Chatelain's role in depicting and disseminating architecture to a larger public was an important part of the architectural practice, as it raised public awareness of architectural styles and important structures.

The gardens at Stowe, the home of Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham, were a subject of popular interest because of their reconstruction throughout the early eighteenth century by Temple and Charles Bridgeman. They attracted architects such as Sir John Vanbrugh (cat. 110), who designed this rotunda (1721), and William Kent (cat. 113). Lancelot "Capability" Brown was head gardener at Stow in 1741. Chatelain presents the landscape at Stowe as pastoral and idyll; framed by the Ionic columns of the rotunda on the left and the majestic trees on the right, diminutive picturesque workers rest or assume classical poses. This view would change drastically soon afterward, as the monument and canal in the distance as well as surrounding trees, were removed to provide a central vista from the garden façade of the house.

Morna O'Neill

Wilcox, Forrester, O'Neil, Sloan. The Line of Beauty: British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2001. pg. 136 cat. no. 114

Art in Focus: John Goto's High Summer (Yale Center for British Art, 2018-04-06 - 2018-08-19) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

The Changing Garden: Four Hundred Years of European and American Gardens and Parks (The University of Michigan Museum of Art, 2004-03-13 - 2004-05-23) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Changing Garden: Four Hundred Years of European and American Gardens and Parks (Dixon Gallery & Gardens, 2003-10-19 - 2004-01-11) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Changing Garden: Four Hundred Years of European and American Gardens and Parks (Cantor Art Center, Stanford University, 2003-06-11 - 2003-09-07) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Line of Beauty : British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-05-19 - 2001-08-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

The World of Alexander Pope (Yale Center for British Art, 1988-04-08 - 1988-05-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Early Georgian Landscape Garden (Yale Center for British Art, 1983-04-20 - 1983-06-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Country Houses in Great Britain - Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 1979-10-10 - 1980-01-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Art in Focus : John Goto's 'High Summer', Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2018, p. 17, Vertical File V2770 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christie's sale catalogue : Fine English drawings and watercolours : 17 November 1970, Christie's, November 17, 1970, p. 20, lot 64, Auction Catalogues (YCBA)

Country houses in Great Britain., Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1979, pp. 14, 71, no. 58, N6764 Y34 1979 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Betsy G. Fryberger, The changing garden : four centuries of European and American art, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Berkeley, 2003, p. 170, no. 81a, N8217 .G36 F79 2003 + Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Prof. Maynard Mack, The World of Alexander Pope, Yale University Press, New Haven, p. 60, no 49, Z8704 M37 [ORBIS]

Kimerly Rorschach, The early Georgian landscape garden, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1983, pp. 32, 91, no. 28, SB467.78 .G7 R67 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Scott Wilcox, Line of beauty : British drawings and watercolors of the eighteenth century, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, p. 136, no. 114, NC228 W53 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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