Matthew Brettingham

There is no evidence that Brettingham ever formally studied architecture or even travelled abroad. The Dictionary of National Biography reports him as having made two study trips abroad. However, this assumption was made on the strength of an anonymous book now ascribed to someone else, and the other because of confusion with his son Matthew Brettingham the Younger. In 1734, Brettingham had his first great opportunity, when two of the foremost Palladian architects of the day, William Kent and Lord Burlington, were collaborative ...

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Matthew Brettingham, Matthew Brettingham - Early life, Matthew Brettingham - Local contractor, Matthew Brettingham - Architect, Matthew Brettingham - The London House, Matthew Brettingham - Kedleston Hall, Matthew Brettingham - Conclusion

Read more here: » Matthew Brettingham: Encyclopedia II - Matthew Brettingham - Architect

Interior decoration is the art of decorating a room so it looks good, is easy to use, and functions well with the existing architecture. The goal of interior decoration is to provide a certain "feel" for the room; it encompasses applying wallpaper, painting walls and other surfaces, choosing furniture and fittings, such as light fixtures, and providing other decorations for the area such as paintings and sculptures. Interior decorating is done professionall ...

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• Interior decoration - Theme
• Interior decoration - Something to Avoid in Your Decorating
• Interior decoration - On the television

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William Kent (born in Bridlington, Yorkshire, c. 1685 - April 12, 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect and furniture designer of the early 18th century. William Kent - Education. Kent's career began as a sign and coach painter who was encouraged to study art, design and architecture by his employer. A group of Yorkshire gentlemen sent Kent for a period of study in Rome, where he met Thomas Coke, later 1st Earl of Leicester, with whom he toured Northern Italy in the summer of 1714 (a tour that ...

Including:

• William Kent - Education
• William Kent - Architectural works
• William Kent - Landscape architect
• William Kent - Furniture designer
• William Kent - Walpole tribute
• William Kent - Bibliography

Read more here: » William Kent: Encyclopedia - William Kent

The neoclassical interior of the house was designed by Adam to be no less impressive than the exterior. Entering the house through the great north portico on the piano nobile, one is confronted by the marble hall designed to suggest the open courtyard or atrium of a Roman villa. Twenty fluted alabaster columns with Corinthian capitals support the heavily decorated, high-coved cornice. Niches in the walls contain classical statuary; above the niches are grisaille panels. The floor is of inlaid Italian marble. Matthew Paine's original designs ...

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Kedleston Hall, Kedleston Hall - External design, Kedleston Hall - Interior, Kedleston Hall - Gardens and grounds

Read more here: » Kedleston Hall: Encyclopedia II - Kedleston Hall - Interior

Lord Burlington, also known as "the architect Earl", was instrumental in the revival of Palladian architecture. He succeeded to the title and extensive estates in Yorkshire and Ireland at the age of ten. Three foreign Grand Tours 1714 – 1719 and a further trip to Paris in 1726 gave him opportunities to develop his taste. His professional skill as an architect (always supported by a mason-contractor) was extraordinary in an English aristocrat. He carried his copy of Andrea Palladio's book I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura with him ...

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Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington, Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington - Life account, Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington - Major projects, Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington - Marriage and children, Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington - Reference

Read more here: » Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington: Encyclopedia II - Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington - Life account

The builder of Holkham was Thomas Coke,[3] later 1st Earl of Leicester, born in 1697. A cultivated, wealthy man, he had made the Grand Tour in his youth, being away from England for six years between 1712 and 1718. It is thought he first met Burlington, the aristocratic architect at the forefront of the Palladian revival movement in England, and William Kent in Italy in 1715; it is possible that there in the original home of Palladianism, the idea of a new man ...

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Holkham Hall, Holkham Hall - Architects and patron, Holkham Hall - The design of Holkham, Holkham Hall - External appearance, Holkham Hall - Interior, Holkham Hall - Holkham today, Holkham Hall - Notes

Read more here: » Holkham Hall: Encyclopedia II - Holkham Hall - Architects and patron

He is better remembered as the central architect of the revived Palladian style in England. Burlington gave him the task of editing The Designs of Inigo Jones... with some additional designs in the Palladian/Jonesian taste by Burlington and Kent, which appeared in 1727. As he rose through the royal architectural establishment, the Board of Works, Kent applied this style to several public buildings in London, for which Burlington's patronage secured him the commissions: the Royal Mews at Charing Cross (1731-33, demolished in 1830), the ...

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William Kent, William Kent - Education, William Kent - Architectural works, William Kent - Landscape architect, William Kent - Furniture designer, William Kent - Walpole tribute, William Kent - Bibliography

Read more here: » William Kent: Encyclopedia II - William Kent - Architectural works

As a landscape designer, Kent was one of the originators of the English landscape garden, a style of 'natural' gardening that revolutionised English garden design. He worked on Stowe, Buckinghamshire from about 1730 onwards, at Alexander Pope's villa garden at Twickenham, for Queen Caroline at Richmond and notably at Rousham House, creating a sequence of Arcadian setpieces punctuated with temples, cascades, grottoes, Palladian bridges and exedrae, and opening the field for the broader achievements of Capability Brown in the following generat ...

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William Kent, William Kent - Education, William Kent - Architectural works, William Kent - Landscape architect, William Kent - Furniture designer, William Kent - Walpole tribute, William Kent - Bibliography

Read more here: » William Kent: Encyclopedia II - William Kent - Landscape architect

The gardens and grounds, as they appear today are largely the concept of Robert Adam. Adam was asked to Nathaniel Curzon in 1758 to "take in hand the deer park and pleasure grounds". The landscape gardener William Emes had begun work at Kedleston in 1756, and he continued in Curzon's employ until 1760; however, it was Adam who was the guiding influence. It was during this period that the former gardens designed by Charles Bridgeman were swept away in favour of a more natural looking landscape. Bridgeman's canals and geo ...

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Kedleston Hall, Kedleston Hall - External design, Kedleston Hall - Interior, Kedleston Hall - Gardens and grounds

Read more here: » Kedleston Hall: Encyclopedia II - Kedleston Hall - Gardens and grounds

Richard married Lady Dorothy Saville on 21 March 1720. Dorothy was daughter of William Savile, 2nd Marquess of Halifax and Mary Finch. Mary was daughter of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham and Lady Essex Rich. Essex was daughter of Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick and Anne Cheeke. Anne was daughter of Sir Thomas Cheeke of Pirgo and a senior Essex Rich. The elder Essex was daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick and Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich. Essex was probably named after her maternal grandfather Wal ...

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Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington, Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington - Life account, Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington - Major projects, Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington - Marriage and children, Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington - Reference

Read more here: » Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington: Encyclopedia II - Richard Boyle 3rd Earl of Burlington - Marriage and children

The design of the three-floored house is of three blocks linked by two segmentally curved corridors. The ground floor is rusticated, while the upper floors are of smooth dressed stone. The central, largest block contains the state rooms and was intended for use only when there were important guests in the house. The East block was a self-contained country house in its own right containing all the rooms for the family's private use, and the identical West block contained the kitchens and all other domestic rooms and staff accommodation. Plans ...

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Kedleston Hall, Kedleston Hall - External design, Kedleston Hall - Interior, Kedleston Hall - Gardens and grounds

Read more here: » Kedleston Hall: Encyclopedia II - Kedleston Hall - External design

Inside the house, the Palladian form reaches a height and grandeur seldom seen in any other house in England—a deliberate contrast to the austere facades. What is remarkable is that this unique grandeur is obtained with an absence of excessive ornament. The house is entered through the "Marble" Hall (the chief building fabric is in fact Derbyshire alabaster), modelled by Kent on a Roman basilica. The room is 50 feet (15.2 m) from floor to ceiling and is dominated by the broad white marble flight of steps leading to the surroundin ...

See also:

Holkham Hall, Holkham Hall - Architects and patron, Holkham Hall - The design of Holkham, Holkham Hall - External appearance, Holkham Hall - Interior, Holkham Hall - Holkham today, Holkham Hall - Notes

Read more here: » Holkham Hall: Encyclopedia II - Holkham Hall - Interior

His stately furniture designs complemented his interiors: he designed furnishings for Hampton Court Palace (1732), for Devonshire House in London, and at Rousham. The royal barge he designed for Frederick, Prince of Wales can still be seen at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. In his own age, Kent's fame and popularity were so great that he was employed to give designs for all things, even for ladies' birthday dresses, of which he could know nothing and which he decorated with the five classical orders of architecture. These and ...

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William Kent, William Kent - Education, William Kent - Architectural works, William Kent - Landscape architect, William Kent - Furniture designer, William Kent - Walpole tribute, William Kent - Bibliography

Read more here: » William Kent: Encyclopedia II - William Kent - Furniture designer

The external appearance of Holkham can best be described as a huge Roman palace. However, as with most architectural designs, it is never quite that simple. Holkham is a Palladian house, and yet even by Palladian standards the external appearance of Holkham is austere and devoid of ornament (see illustration). The reasons for this can almost certainly be traced to Coke himself. The on-site, supervising architect of Holkham, Matthew Brettingham, related that Coke required and demanded "commodiousness", which can be interpreted as comfo ...

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Holkham Hall, Holkham Hall - Architects and patron, Holkham Hall - The design of Holkham, Holkham Hall - External appearance, Holkham Hall - Interior, Holkham Hall - Holkham today, Holkham Hall - Notes

Read more here: » Holkham Hall: Encyclopedia II - Holkham Hall - External appearance

Sir Nathaniel Curzon, later 1st Baron Scarsdale, having refused a prospective design by James Gibbs, one of the leading architects of the day, commissioned Brettingham in 1759 to design a great country house to equal Holkham Hall. (Lord Leicester, Holkham's owner and Brettingham's employer, was a particular hero of Curzon.) Curzon was a Tory from a very old Derbyshire family, and he wished to create a showpiece to rival the nearby Chatsworth House owned by the Whig Duke of Devonshire, whose family were relative newcomers in the county, havin ...

See also:

Matthew Brettingham, Matthew Brettingham - Early life, Matthew Brettingham - Local contractor, Matthew Brettingham - Architect, Matthew Brettingham - The London House, Matthew Brettingham - Kedleston Hall, Matthew Brettingham - Conclusion

Read more here: » Matthew Brettingham: Encyclopedia II - Matthew Brettingham - Kedleston Hall

From 1747, Brettingham had begun to operate from London as well as Norwich. This period marks a turning point in his career, as he was now no longer designing country houses and farm buildings just for the local aristocrats and the Norfolk gentry, but for the greater aristocracy based in London. One of Brettingham's greatest solo commissions came when he was asked to designed a town house for the Duke of Norfolk in St. James's Square, London. Completed in 1756, this mansion was from the exterior similar to many of the great palazzi in ...

See also:

Matthew Brettingham, Matthew Brettingham - Early life, Matthew Brettingham - Local contractor, Matthew Brettingham - Architect, Matthew Brettingham - The London House, Matthew Brettingham - Kedleston Hall, Matthew Brettingham - Conclusion

Read more here: » Matthew Brettingham: Encyclopedia II - Matthew Brettingham - The London House