A portrait painting of Brown painted by Nathaniel Dance, c. 1773
Born
Lancelot Brown
Kirkharle, Northumberland, England
Baptised
30 August 1716
Died
6 February 1783(1783-02-06) (aged 67–68)
London, England
Occupations
Gardener
Landscape architect
Spouse
Bridget Wayet
(m. 1744)
Children
8
Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783),[1] more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. He is remembered as "the last of the great English 18th-century artists to be accorded his due" and "England's greatest gardener".
Unlike other architects including William Kent, he was a hands-on gardener and provided his clients with a full turnkey service, designing the gardens and park, and then managing their landscaping and planting. He is most famous for the landscaped parks of English country houses, many of which have survived reasonably intact. However, he also included in his plans "pleasure gardens" with flower gardens and the new shrubberies, usually placed where they would not obstruct the views across the park of and from the main facades of the house. Few of his plantings of "pleasure gardens" have survived later changes. He also submitted plans for much smaller urban projects, for example the college gardens along The Backs at Cambridge.
Criticism of his style, both in his own day and subsequently, mostly centres on the claim that "he created 'identikit' landscapes with the main house in a sea of turf, some water, albeit often an impressive feature, and trees in clumps and shelterbelts", giving "a uniformity equating to authoritarianism" and showing a lack of imagination and even taste on the part of his patrons.[2]
He designed more than 170 parks, many of which survive. He was nicknamed "Capability" because he would tell his clients that their property had "capability" for improvement.[3] His influence was so great that the contributions to the English garden made by his predecessors Charles Bridgeman and William Kent are often overlooked; even Kent's champion Horace Walpole allowed that Kent "was succeeded by a very able master".[4]
^"Lancelot Brown". Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2007. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
^Wickham, 2
^McKenna, Steve (17 April 2016). "Highclere Castle: The real-life Downton Abbey". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
^Walpole, Horace (1905) [1780]. On Modern Gardening. Canton, Pa.: Kirgate Press. p. 87. at Internet Archive
Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as CapabilityBrown, was an English gardener and landscape...
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architectural "transformation" of the house and garden was begun by CapabilityBrown, the celebrated architect and landscape designer, and completed by...
him the Gothic interior of the chapel. Lancelot "Capability" Brown had been on hand since 1749. Brown, who was still head gardener at Stowe at the time...
park straddling the River Aln which was landscaped by Lancelot Brown ("CapabilityBrown") and Thomas Call in the 18th century; it is known locally as the...
the 1st Duke's formal gardens with a more natural look, designed by CapabilityBrown, which he helped bring into fashion. In 1748, the 4th Duke married...
entered a golden age, under the direction of William Kent and Lancelot "Capability" Brown. They refined the English landscape garden style with the design of...
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he commissioned the famous landscaper CapabilityBrown to modernise the landscaping around the property. Brown was an expert at making serpentine lakes...
laid down in 1750 by the 1st Duke of Northumberland, who employed CapabilityBrown, the celebrated Northumberland gardener, to landscape the parkland...
sweeping changes before he died in 1797. In 1762, he commissioned CapabilityBrown to landscape the parkland, and Robert Adam to design new reception...
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(12 km2) park of rolling pastures, lakes, and woodland landscaped by CapabilityBrown. While Grimsthorpe is not a castle in the strict sense of the word...