Title & Author:

The Hampton Court albums of Catherine the Great : containing drawings, mainly of the palace and its surrounds, by Capability Brown's draughtsman and surveyor, John Spyers, purchased by Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia / text, Mikhail Piotrovsky, Mikhail Dedinkin, David Jacques.

Publication:

London : Fontanka, 2016.
©2016

Description:

144 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 33 cm

Notes:
"The Hermitage Foundation UK."
"Commissioned by the Hermitage Foundation UK to coincide with the exhibition The Empress and the Gardener at Hampton Court Palace, 28 April - 4 September 2016"--Title page verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
A discovery in the Hermitage / Mikhail Piotrovsky -- The Hampton Court albums of Catherine the Great / Mikhail Dedinkin -- John Spyers, Capability Brown's draughtsman and surveyor, and his views of Hampton Court / David Jacques -- Album I. Drawings of the Royal Palace &c. at Hampton Court -- Album II. Landscapes, studies and architectural drawings.

Summary:

"This is the publication of an album containing 100 watercolours/drawings of Capability Brown's designs for Hampton Court Palace gardens, hitherto unknown. These were purchased by Empress Catherine the Great of Russia through her own gardener James Meader, a disciple of Capability Brown, and then forgotten in the Hermitage stores. John Spyers, the artist to whom the albums have been attributed by Hermitage curator Mikhail Dedinkin, was Brown's surveyor. Catherine the Great paid the huge sum of 1,000 roubles for them in the early 1780s and they were clearly bought as Capability Brown drawings. The importance of these views, which have never been published or on exhibition before, cannot be overstated. Almost no other visual material about Hampton Court and its gardens and park at the period when Lancelot 'Capability' Brown was the resident Royal Gardener has survived. Catherine the Great used these drawings when designing her 'English' gardens at Peterhof and elsewhere."--Wheelers.co.nz.

ISBN:

9781906257224 (hbk.)
1906257221 (hbk.)

Subject:

Hampton Court (Richmond upon Thames, London, England) History.
Hampton Court (Richmond upon Thames, Londres, Angleterre) Histoire.
Hampton Court (Richmond upon Thames, London, England)
21.22 history of drawing.

Form/genre:

Exhibition catalogues.
Exhibition publications.
exhibition catalogs.
Exhibition catalogs.
History.
Catalogues d'exposition.

Added entries:

Piotrovskiĭ, M. B. (Mikhail Borisovich), author.
Dedinkin, Mikhail, author.
Jacques, David, 1948- author.
Spyers, John. Works. Selections.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 294453
Call No.: BIB 240036
Status: Available