A View of the Cascade, Bushy Park Water Gardens c.1715
Oil on canvas | 150.4 x 248.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 402592
Studio of Marco Ricci (Belluno 1676-Venice 1730)
A View of the Cascade, Bushy Park Water Gardens c.1715
Studio of Marco Ricci (Belluno 1676-Venice 1730)
A View of the Cascade, Bushy Park Water Gardens c.1715
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This painting was only identified as the Water Gardens of Upper Lodge, Bushy Park in 1999. Lord Halifax (Ranger of Bushy Park) completed his new Water Gardens at Upper Lodge, near Hampton Court in 1710. The painting is surely intended to commemorate the completion of the new cascade and the visit to it of Prince George, later George II and his future Queen, Caroline of Ansbach, who is shown with her black page. Lord Halifax is believed to be the figure in the middle of the group of five men in the left foreground of the painting. He is shown wearing his Order of the Garter which he was given in 1714. He died in May 1715. The cascade depicted here was possibly inspired by the famous cascade at St Cloud near Paris, which would have been known through engravings. The cascade was described in some detail by Samuel Molyneaux in a letter of February 1714: ‘There was here little or nothing remarkable but the Cascade...very beautifully dispos’d so as to fall between two fine pieces of Grotto work where there are places left for Paintings representing two Caves in which little walks round the Basin of the Cascade end.’
Provenance
First recorded in the Royal Collection in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
150.4 x 248.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
Other number(s)
Alternative title(s)
Figures in a garden
George II (1683-1760) as a young man (?) and other figures strolling in a garden