Landscape gardens in essence

The publication in facsimile of F.M. Piper's 1811-12 manuscript on the design of English landscape parks is a major event for garden historians. In the first of an occasional series of review articles, Todd Longstaffe-Gowan assesses the book, and discusses the challenging questions it raises about our understanding of eighteenth century English landscape design.

In Sweden, the name of Fredrik Magnus Piper is synonymous with the English landscape garden. Indeed, until recently there was hardly an eighteenth-century 'English' landscape garden of any consequence in Sweden that was not ascribed to the country's much-vaunted, first professionally trained, landscape gardener.

Piper (1746-1824) is no stranger to landscape historians outside Sweden, who know his work through the catalogue of the Piper exhibition at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm (1981), John Phibbs's essay 'Pleasure Grounds in Sweden and their English models' published in Garden History (1993, vol. XXI, no. 1, pp. 60-90) and Magnus Olausson's book Den Engelska parken I Sverige under gustaviask tid ('The English Landscape Garden in Sweden during the Gustavian Era', Stockholm, 1993). Few, however, will be acquainted with Piper's Description of 1811-12. The architect has been subjected to another round of rigorous scrutiny, with the not so surprising result that the number of gardens now attributed to him has been significantly reduced. This assessment does not detract from the legacy of the talented Swede--a man whose works, in Olausson's words, 'merit comparison with those of the greatest of his contemporaries in Europe'. His oeuvre, although small, was very influential.

Born the same year as King Gustav Ill, Piper had, by virtue of his father's position as Surveyor to the Royal Household, easy access to those in power. However, throughout his life, he remained somewhat of an outsider. This might in part be attributed to his parvenu noble status in class-ridden Sweden (his father was not ennobled until 1776), but a more plausible explanation is that his professional development and recognition were tainted by his 'less than gracious manner'. What little we know about the personal character of 'petit Piper' (as he was described by C.F. Sundvall) suggests that he was, in John Harris's words, 'a little full of himself'--or, in Olausson's less charitable appraisal--devoid of personal charm and capable of being 'unforgiving, peevish and pedantic'. These faults, combined with his 'sullen and morose manner', doubtless played into the hands of his detractors. That Piper achieved the degree of success he did during his lifetime is all the more remarkable because he made no secret of the fact that he deplored the 'conceited Ideas and whims' of the king and his fawning retinue of 'Ladies and Cavaliers' that frustrated his efforts to secure important royal commissions.

By dint of hard work and determination Piper used his natural artistic talent and practical skills to great effect. He read mathematics and hydrostatics at Uppsala University between 1764 and 1766, and subsequently studied engineering at the Trollhattan locks and the naval dockyards at Karlskrona. After a spell at the Academy of Fine Arts and an apprenticeship to the civil engineer Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz, he was encouraged and sponsored by the Francophile King Gustav Ill--himself a talented amateur architect--to continue his studies abroad. He travelled to England in 1773 to acquire 'an understanding of garden architecture, in the hope that he will eventually do our nation such service as nobody hitherto seeking perfection in the genre has accomplished'.

In London, Piper was taken on by the architect Sir William Chambers--the 'special protector of Swedes in London'--who employed him for roughly a year, until Piper departed, unannounced, for France and Italy. There he continued his studies, acquiring new insights into landscape gardening by meticulously recording the Villa Lante in Bagnaia, the Villa Doria Pamphili in Rome, and the Villas Conti and Aldobrandini in Frascati. In France he acquainted himself with the baroque gardens at Versailles and Marly-le-Roi and their celebrated waterworks.

It was, however, Piper's field studies conducted during his second English excursion, in 1779-80, that were perhaps to be the most decisive in his career. During this period he visited and recorded his observations at several celebrated amateur gardens, including the Leasowes, Painshill and Mulgrave Castle, and undertook systematic studies of some larger landscape parks, such as Stowe, Hagley and Stourhead. He encapsulated these observations in a scheme that he developed for an imaginary royal park. This large 'general plan' was exhibited at the Royal Society of Arts in 1780--a scheme which formed the basis for two subsequent exercises, the last being his Description of the Idea and General-Plan for an English Garden of 1811-12.

Piper returned to Sweden in 1780, and within months of his arrival he was appointed court surveyor and charged with the responsibility 'to supervise the Parks of Our Royal Castles, with regards to their design and decoration'. Much was expected of him--not least by Gustav Ill, who was in the throes of laying out his gardens at Drottningholm and was eager to exchange ideas with his young charge. Piper threw himself into this work with great enthusiasm; however, his proposed revision of the scheme by Gustav III and C.F. Adelcrantz did not please the king. As Olausson remarks: 'in his arrogance, Piper does not seem to have considered the fact that the extensive changes which he proposed could be indirectly interpreted as a criticism of his royal client'.
http://findarticles.com