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View of the Lake and the Island from the Lawn at Kew

Architect Sir William Chambers British, born Sweden
1763
Not on view
This delicate watercolor depicts a view in the Royal Botanic Garden of Kew (near London), designed by the celebrated eighteenth-century English architect William Chambers. This sheet is bound in an album containing the original drawings later published in print form as Plans, Elevations, Sections and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings of Kew in Surrey, the Seat of Her Royal Highness, the Princess Dowager of Wales (London, 1763). This work illustrates sections of the garden and numerous structures at Kew, including a mosque, a classical rotunda, and a Chinese pagoda, demonstrating the fascination for eclecticism in garden art at this time. The soft undulating shape of the lake and its surrounding lawns is combined with the crisp silhouette of the Chinese pagoda as distant focal point, and the view expresses essential qualties of the English landscape garden, so admired and imitated on the continent.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: View of the Lake and the Island from the Lawn at Kew
  • Artist: William Marlow (British, Southwark, London 1740/41–1813 Twickenham, London)
  • Architect: Sir William Chambers (British (born Sweden), Göteborg 1723–1796 London)
  • Date: 1763
  • Medium: Watercolor
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 11 3/16 x 17 13/16 in. (28.4 x 45.2 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1925
  • Object Number: 25.19.38
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings of Kew, Sir William Chambers British, born Sweden, Pen and ink, brush and wash, watercolor and gouache (bodycolor)
Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings of Kew
Sir William Chambers
1763
The door of a grotto, William Marlow British, Watercolor and graphite
The door of a grotto
William Marlow
ca. 1765–66
View of the Wilderness at Kew, William Marlow British, Watercolor
View of the Wilderness at Kew
William Marlow
Sir William Chambers
1763
View of the Lake Island from the Bridge at Kew
William Marlow
Sir William Chambers
1763
Lindisfarne Castle, Holy Island, Northumberland, Thomas Girtin British, Watercolor and bodycolor (gouache)
Lindisfarne Castle, Holy Island, Northumberland
Thomas Girtin
1796–97

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