Capability Brown
(1716-1783), Landscape gardenerLancelot ('Capability') Brown
Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue Entry
Sitter in 4 portraits
'Capability' Brown was the most successful eighteenth-century landscape designer. He began working as a gardener in his native Northumberland and became William Kent's assistant at Stowe, Buckinghamshire before striking out on his own. From 1749 he worked independently, mainly as a landscape gardener. He worked for an impressive range of clients and told them that their estates had great 'capabilities'. He remoulded the parks around country houses with gentle slopes and serpentine lakes. His designs set a fashion for open, naturalistic landscapes, populated by grazing herds and punctuated by eye-catching buildings.
Watch a film clip on the sitter from the BBC Archive in the Media section below
by Nathaniel Dance (later Sir Nathaniel Holland, Bt)
oil on canvas, circa 1773
NPG 6049
after Nathaniel Dance (later Sir Nathaniel Holland, Bt)
oil on canvas, based on a work from late 1770s
NPG 1490
by John Keyse Sherwin, after Nathaniel Dance (later Sir Nathaniel Holland, Bt)
line and stipple engraving, 1770-1790 (circa 1769)
NPG D16434
by John Keyse Sherwin, after Nathaniel Dance (later Sir Nathaniel Holland, Bt)
line and stipple engraving, 1770-1790 (circa 1769)
NPG D20332
Links
- Appuldurcombe House, Isle of Wight
- Audley End House & Gardens, Essex
- Berrington Hall, Nr Leominster, Herefordshire
- Blue plaque, Wilderness House, Moat Lane, Hampton Court Palace, Hampton Court, London KT8 9AR
- Bowood House and Gardens, Calne, Wiltshire
- Broadlands, Romsey, Hampshire
- Croome Park, Worcestershire
- Escot Country Park & Gardens, Escot, Devon
- Kew Gardens, Richmond, London
- Lancelot ('Capability') Brown in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Petworth House, Petworth, Sussex
- Roche Abbey, Yorkshire
- Sherborne Castle, Sherborne, Dorset
- Stowe Gardens, Buckingham, Buckinghamshire
- Syon Park, Brentford, Middlesex
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