Live Talk: Hugh Belsey

This event has now passed.

Title An Artist’s view of Landscape Gardening.

Abstract In the early 1700s gardening in Britain was influenced by the formal designs of the Frenchman, André Le Nôtre. Records of the gardens at Melbourne, Chiswick, Stowe and Hartwell provide interesting examples and, in the middle of the century, William Kent began to adapt this approach by introducing vistas into the mix and expand the physical confines of the garden. These schemes were further developed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphrey Repton and the Englische Garten became the fashion throughout Europe and America.

To what extent were these changes economic, and did painters and travel — especially to Italy — influence these trends? This talk will examine gardening from the parallel developments in painting and drawing, and show how the influence from one artistic expression developed another.

Our Speaker Hugh Belsey is a graduate of the Universities of Manchester and Birmingham and he has lectured to groups in Europe, America, Australia and Britain. For twenty-three years he was the curator of Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury where he formed one of the largest collections of the artist’s work. In 2004 he was awarded an MBE in recognition of his museum work. He has appeared as an expert witness in both the BBC series Fake or Fortune? and in BBC4’s Britain’s Lost Masterpieces. Yale University Press published his catalogue of portraits by Thomas Gainsborough in February 2019 which was awarded the William W B Berger Prize for Art History in 2020. As a sequel, he is now working on a catalogue of the work of Gainsborough Dupont. Every year he gives a series of lectures on aspects of British Art; this year is an exception and the subject is Dutch painting.

Location Village Hall, Grove End, Hilton PE28 9PF. Click here for Google map directions, or download directions here. Parking is available outside the Village Hall. The hall will open from 11:00am, the AGM will start at 11:30am followed by the Margaret Helm Lecture at approximately 12:00noon.

This live talk is open to members of Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust and guests. It will follow the CGT AGM, and a buffet lunch will be available after the talk. The AGM is free to attend; the lunch and talk are £12, payable by BACS to our new account in the name of Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust (sort code 30-99-50, account number 80635768 using your name as reference), or by cheque, or at the door. Please book or email admin by 27 October for catering purposes.