EPISODE 513 DID LANDSCAPE ARTISTS OF 17TH CENTURY PUT IDEAS INTO CAPABILITY BROWN’S HEAD?
alan skeoch
Jan. 2022
Where did Capability Brown get his landscaping ideas from? Many places I suppose.
One source may be the landscape paintings of 17th century artists like Poussin.
In other words some of his ides may have not come directly from nature but rather from landscape paintings that hung in the great country houses
Capability visited. Just a thought. Poussin is mentioned as influencing head gardeners in the
ph.d. thesis of Ms. Greener, University of Exeter, England.
The painting below was done by the 17th century artist Poussin. When this painting is put side by side
with an artists impression of Chatsworth landscape as changed by Capability Brown, I was struck by the similarities.
LANDSCAPE WITH DIOGENES, 1647 by Poussin
(Diogenes was a Greek philosopher known for his brutal honesty)
CHATSWORTH LANDSCAPE, 17 TH CENTURY (Artistic impression)
“What do you think of that idea, Capability?”
“I would say, Alan, that it has ‘capabilities?
ALAN