Charles Bridgeman

Charles Bridgeman (* 1690, † July 19, 1738 in Kensington ) was an English landscape architect. He prepared the move away from a strictly formal style of the Baroque and opened the view of the landscape including the use of dumped garden walls ( "Ha- Ha "). Among his most famous designs were the gardens of Stowe House ( Buckinghamshire ) in the early 18th century.

Life

Little is known about Bridge Mans origin, his youth and education. His father may have been a gardener in Wimpole Hall ( Rodgers 805.1 ). The gardener craft he learned probably in the nursery of Brompton. In 1714 he collaborated with Henry Wise, then with John Vanbrugh. In 1709 he recorded his first garden design (for the Military Garden in Blenheim ), which had an Haha Trench ( Jöchner 204.2 ).

The mid- 1720s was one of the most successful Bridgeman garden artists of his time. He worked with James Gibbs and Henry Flitcroft. 1726, he was elected to the St. Luke 's Club of Artists. In 1728 he received the title of Royal Gardener ( " gardener of the King", by George II.) Beginning of the 1730s he worked with William Kent together ( Rodgers 805.2 ).

He married in 1717 Sarah crap, from the common seven children survived four: Charles, Sarah, Elizabeth and Ann ( Willis 2004 562.1 ). His income allowed him to purchase several houses: 19 Broad Street in Westminster, which he ( canceled in 1956 ) from 1723 until his death inhabited, 8 Henrietta Street and the Bell Inn in Stilton ( Willis 2004 564.2 ). Bridgeman died in 1783 at a dropsy and was buried in the graveyard of St James Church ( Piccadilly ). His widow published a year after his death a garden plan of Stowe.

Bridge Mans garden designs were characterized by both traditional elements ( parterres, straight paths, geometric ponds ), new ideas (for garden buildings and statuary jewelry ) and groundbreaking innovations. Its advanced concepts included the involvement of the surrounding landscape, which he achieved by replacement of interfering garden walls by Ha -Has, and the creation of viewpoints ( mounts, " hills, small mountains " ), and also the system of walking and riding trails, the visual relationships landscape allowed into the (garden).

Bridgeman was a friend of Stephen Switzer and used a variety of social contacts, as Alexander Pope, who admired his garden creations in Stowe, and other Matthew Prior ( Willis 2004 564.1 ). The landscape architect William Kent and Lancelot Brown took Bridge Mans ideas and led them to lasting success.

Works (selection)

  • Stowe House (first work as early as 1716)
  • Eastbury, Dorset, with Vanbrugh (1718, destroyed)
  • Claremont Landscape Garden, with Vanbrugh, round pond and amphitheater ( in the 1720s )
  • Chicheley Hall, Buckinghamshire, horseshoe- shaped channel (1722)
  • Chiswick House, Kent ( 1725 )
  • Cliveden, Buckinghamshire, walking paths ( " walks" ) and open-air theater ( 1723 )
  • Kensington Gardens, London, Round Pond (1728) and serpentinförmiger River (1731 )
  • Richmond Gardens, Kent (before 1733)
  • Woburn Abbey, Garden design (1733, Humphry Repton changed by )

Literature and sources

  • David Rodgers: Bridgeman, Charles. In: The dictionary of art, ed. by Jane Turner. Vol 4, Macmillan, London 1996, ISBN 1-884446-00-0, pp. 805-806.
  • Cornelia Jöchner: Bridgeman, Charles. In: Saur Allgemeines Künstler -Lexikon, Vol 14 Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-22754- X, pp. 204-205.
  • Peter Willis: Bridgeman, Charles. In: The Oxford companion to gardens, ed. by Patrick Goode, Michael Lancaster. Oxford, New York 2001, ISBN 0-19-860440-8, pp. 72-74.
  • Peter Willis: Bridgeman, Charles. In: Oxford dictionary of national biography, ed. by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Vol 7, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861357-1, pp. 562-565.
  • Landscape Architect
  • Gardener
  • English
  • Born in 1690
  • Died in 1738
  • Man
Plant nursery William Kent (disambiguation) Capability Brown Claremont (country house) Richmond Park Integrated Authority File
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