Exploring Chatsworth's Eden
Lady Emma Tennant, sister of the Duke of Devonshire, lives in a state of constant con- ict. And her dilemma? ‘Should I be out in the garden or should I be painting?’
A keen gardener, Lady Emma began painting more than 25 years ago as a way to catalogue her plants. ‘I do like the whole process of growing something, getting it owering or fruiting, then painting it,’ she explains. ‘It seems like a sort of natural sequence of events.’
But her delicate botanical illustrations quickly caught the attention of fellow gardeners and artists alike, and Lady Emma has since displayed her work in 17 solo exhibitions in London, New York and Japan. And this year is a particularly special one. First, Lady Emma celebrates her 70th birthday this month, and second, she is exhibiting in a new show, this time at her family home, Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.
From left: Lady Emma; Grapes 'Muscat Of Alexandria'; Chatsworth House, in Derbyshire
Even though Lady Emma did not grow up there (‘When my parents moved back in about 1960 I was away at university, but I obviously went back there during the holidays’), Chatsworth – and especially its garden – still holds a special place in her a ections. It was her brother, Peregrine Cavendish, the 12th Duke, who currently resides at Chatsworth, who came up with the idea for the show. ‘My brother said, “Look, come on, let’s have a birthday exhibition at Chatsworth.” Obviously, I thought it was a very good idea.’
Inspiration for the collection was easy to find. Chatsworth’s archivist, James Towe, had recently come across the 6th Duke of Devonshire’s plant list. Dated around 1840, and comprising close to 1,000 species of plants, it gives a unique insight into the fashions of British gardens at the time.
‘It was a handwritten list in alphabetical order,’ Lady Emma says animatedly, ‘with everything from greenhouse plants to succulents to orchids to forest trees.’
The list, which was written during the height of the collaboration between the 6th Duke and his head gardener, Joseph Paxton, demonstrates that the history of the gardens at Chatsworth is just as illustrious as that of the house. Lady Emma set about painting a selection of the plants listed, even seeking out and growing some of the missing specimens from seed.
‘The list is a mixture of things that are still familiar and things that have rather dropped out of fashion,’ she says.
She was surprised to see that there were no tulips, narcissus or da odils in the 19th- century garden, despite their abundance at the time, but there were 19 varieties of rhododendron. ‘But unusually, most of those were from America and Turkey.’
Rhododendrons continue to be the ‘backbone of British gardens’ but most modern varieties are species that were brought back from the Himalayas just a few years after the list was written. In that way, it provides an invaluable snapshot of an English garden at the advent of this age of exploration.
Works by Lady Emma Tennant: Musa acuminata 'Dwarf Cavendish' (left), Rhododendron barbatum (right)
‘It was a very exciting time because people were exploring the world and the empire was expanding. There were plants from Australia, New Zealand and California, and every month new things were arriving.’ The garden featured many plants that ‘we’ve rather given up on today. They grew lots of succulents from Africa, and lots of South African heather, which you hardly ever see now.’
Out of the 81 paintings in the exhibition, Lady Emma will not be drawn on a favourite. ‘That’s like being asked which of your children you prefer,’ she laughs. She does admit, however, that she nds ‘something very satisfying about fruit. It’s a sort of harvest-festival feeling.’
The collection features the Cavendish banana, along with the Grapes Muscat Of Alexandria. Lady Emma had only 18 months to prepare for the exhibition, during which she painted 60 new pieces, with a further 20 or so being recalled from family collections.
Lady Emma favours watercolour when she paints, which she feels best suits her manner of working. ‘I work very quickly, partly because I started to paint when I had young children. Of course if you’re painting owers or fruit you have to be quick, because they die on you. A lot of people say watercolour is di cult but I find it suits me because I’ve got this quick, immediate style.’
She does the majority of her painting in her studio (a converted farm building) at the home she shares with her husband in Roxburghshire. ‘I can go there and nobody interrupts me, and there’s no telephone, which is a huge advantage. I’ve got grandchildren and generally a busy life, but I do paint three or four times a week.’
It has been a lifelong passion, but not one without its struggles. ‘It is very hard work. People don’t always appreciate that – sometimes you just have to tear it up and start again.’
An established and celebrated artist, she still finds the pleasure of seeing her work on show a peculiar one. ‘I always think, “Gosh, did I really do that?” I feel very detached. You put everything into a work when you’re doing it but once it’s framed, it’s got to be launched on the world to sink or swim.’
Lady Emma in her greenhouseShe hopes that visitors to the exhibition will not only get a flavour of Chatsworth past and present, but also be inspired to take up a brush or pencil themselves. ‘Everybody should learn to draw because it does give you extra insight. There’s a saying, “Most people can’t draw their own front door as they’ve never really looked at it.” Drawing is very good training for observation, and you never forget it. Of course the downside is that you also notice the ugly things more – petrol stations marring beautiful landscapes, for example – but it’s far outweighed by the extra pleasure you get.’
An artist, gardener, botanist and historian, Lady Emma humbly states that ‘I’m a jack of all trades, that’s no question.’
Emma Tennant At Chatsworth celebrates the flowers, fruits and vegetables of the Chatsworth Garden. The works are on display in the New Gallery at Chatsworth, from 24 March to 30 June 2013, and entrance is included with admission to the house. For more information: www.chatsworth.org
Chiswick Gardens were close to those of William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, who then resided at Chiswick House. The duke formed a friendship with the young Paxton during his regular walks through his gardens. Impressed by his skill, the duke invited 20-year-old Paxton to become his head gardener at Chatsworth, which was considered one of the most fi nely landscaped gardens in the country.
An eager Paxton set off for Chatsworth immediately, arriving in the early hours of the morning. Later accounts would suggest that he had scaled the kitchen wall, explored the gardens and met his future wife (the housekeeper’s niece, Sarah Bown) all before 9 o’clock on his fi rst day.
During his happy and successful years at Chatsworth, Paxton oversaw many projects, including the building of the Rock Garden, Edensor village and the celebrated Emperor Fountain.
It was during a visit to London in 1850 that Paxton happened to mention an idea he had for the hall of the Great Exhibition of 1851 to MP John Ellis, who encouraged him to present a plan to the Royal Commission. The revolutionary prefabricated design of the building that would become known as The Crystal Palace, made use of 4,500 tons of iron and more than 293,000 panes of glass. Paxton received a knighthood for his work.
As well as being involved in a steady succession of outside projects, Paxton remained as head gardener at Chatsworth until the duke’s death in 1858. Paxton also served as a Liberal MP for Coventry from 1854 until his death in 1865.
A keen gardener, Lady Emma began painting more than 25 years ago as a way to catalogue her plants. ‘I do like the whole process of growing something, getting it owering or fruiting, then painting it,’ she explains. ‘It seems like a sort of natural sequence of events.’
But her delicate botanical illustrations quickly caught the attention of fellow gardeners and artists alike, and Lady Emma has since displayed her work in 17 solo exhibitions in London, New York and Japan. And this year is a particularly special one. First, Lady Emma celebrates her 70th birthday this month, and second, she is exhibiting in a new show, this time at her family home, Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.
From left: Lady Emma; Grapes 'Muscat Of Alexandria'; Chatsworth House, in DerbyshireEven though Lady Emma did not grow up there (‘When my parents moved back in about 1960 I was away at university, but I obviously went back there during the holidays’), Chatsworth – and especially its garden – still holds a special place in her a ections. It was her brother, Peregrine Cavendish, the 12th Duke, who currently resides at Chatsworth, who came up with the idea for the show. ‘My brother said, “Look, come on, let’s have a birthday exhibition at Chatsworth.” Obviously, I thought it was a very good idea.’
Inspiration for the collection was easy to find. Chatsworth’s archivist, James Towe, had recently come across the 6th Duke of Devonshire’s plant list. Dated around 1840, and comprising close to 1,000 species of plants, it gives a unique insight into the fashions of British gardens at the time.
‘It was a handwritten list in alphabetical order,’ Lady Emma says animatedly, ‘with everything from greenhouse plants to succulents to orchids to forest trees.’
The list, which was written during the height of the collaboration between the 6th Duke and his head gardener, Joseph Paxton, demonstrates that the history of the gardens at Chatsworth is just as illustrious as that of the house. Lady Emma set about painting a selection of the plants listed, even seeking out and growing some of the missing specimens from seed.
‘The list is a mixture of things that are still familiar and things that have rather dropped out of fashion,’ she says.
She was surprised to see that there were no tulips, narcissus or da odils in the 19th- century garden, despite their abundance at the time, but there were 19 varieties of rhododendron. ‘But unusually, most of those were from America and Turkey.’
Rhododendrons continue to be the ‘backbone of British gardens’ but most modern varieties are species that were brought back from the Himalayas just a few years after the list was written. In that way, it provides an invaluable snapshot of an English garden at the advent of this age of exploration.
Works by Lady Emma Tennant: Musa acuminata 'Dwarf Cavendish' (left), Rhododendron barbatum (right)‘It was a very exciting time because people were exploring the world and the empire was expanding. There were plants from Australia, New Zealand and California, and every month new things were arriving.’ The garden featured many plants that ‘we’ve rather given up on today. They grew lots of succulents from Africa, and lots of South African heather, which you hardly ever see now.’
Out of the 81 paintings in the exhibition, Lady Emma will not be drawn on a favourite. ‘That’s like being asked which of your children you prefer,’ she laughs. She does admit, however, that she nds ‘something very satisfying about fruit. It’s a sort of harvest-festival feeling.’
The collection features the Cavendish banana, along with the Grapes Muscat Of Alexandria. Lady Emma had only 18 months to prepare for the exhibition, during which she painted 60 new pieces, with a further 20 or so being recalled from family collections.
Lady Emma favours watercolour when she paints, which she feels best suits her manner of working. ‘I work very quickly, partly because I started to paint when I had young children. Of course if you’re painting owers or fruit you have to be quick, because they die on you. A lot of people say watercolour is di cult but I find it suits me because I’ve got this quick, immediate style.’
She does the majority of her painting in her studio (a converted farm building) at the home she shares with her husband in Roxburghshire. ‘I can go there and nobody interrupts me, and there’s no telephone, which is a huge advantage. I’ve got grandchildren and generally a busy life, but I do paint three or four times a week.’
It has been a lifelong passion, but not one without its struggles. ‘It is very hard work. People don’t always appreciate that – sometimes you just have to tear it up and start again.’
An established and celebrated artist, she still finds the pleasure of seeing her work on show a peculiar one. ‘I always think, “Gosh, did I really do that?” I feel very detached. You put everything into a work when you’re doing it but once it’s framed, it’s got to be launched on the world to sink or swim.’
Lady Emma in her greenhouseShe hopes that visitors to the exhibition will not only get a flavour of Chatsworth past and present, but also be inspired to take up a brush or pencil themselves. ‘Everybody should learn to draw because it does give you extra insight. There’s a saying, “Most people can’t draw their own front door as they’ve never really looked at it.” Drawing is very good training for observation, and you never forget it. Of course the downside is that you also notice the ugly things more – petrol stations marring beautiful landscapes, for example – but it’s far outweighed by the extra pleasure you get.’ An artist, gardener, botanist and historian, Lady Emma humbly states that ‘I’m a jack of all trades, that’s no question.’
Emma Tennant At Chatsworth celebrates the flowers, fruits and vegetables of the Chatsworth Garden. The works are on display in the New Gallery at Chatsworth, from 24 March to 30 June 2013, and entrance is included with admission to the house. For more information: www.chatsworth.org
Chatsworth's master gardener
The seventh son of a farming family, Joseph Paxton was born in Bedfordshire in 1803. At the age of 15 he became a garden boy for Sir Gregory Osborne Page-Turner at Battlesden Park near Woburn, later moving to the Horticultural Society’s Chiswick Gardens (he lied about his age in order to obtain the position).Chiswick Gardens were close to those of William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, who then resided at Chiswick House. The duke formed a friendship with the young Paxton during his regular walks through his gardens. Impressed by his skill, the duke invited 20-year-old Paxton to become his head gardener at Chatsworth, which was considered one of the most fi nely landscaped gardens in the country.
An eager Paxton set off for Chatsworth immediately, arriving in the early hours of the morning. Later accounts would suggest that he had scaled the kitchen wall, explored the gardens and met his future wife (the housekeeper’s niece, Sarah Bown) all before 9 o’clock on his fi rst day.
During his happy and successful years at Chatsworth, Paxton oversaw many projects, including the building of the Rock Garden, Edensor village and the celebrated Emperor Fountain.
It was during a visit to London in 1850 that Paxton happened to mention an idea he had for the hall of the Great Exhibition of 1851 to MP John Ellis, who encouraged him to present a plan to the Royal Commission. The revolutionary prefabricated design of the building that would become known as The Crystal Palace, made use of 4,500 tons of iron and more than 293,000 panes of glass. Paxton received a knighthood for his work.
As well as being involved in a steady succession of outside projects, Paxton remained as head gardener at Chatsworth until the duke’s death in 1858. Paxton also served as a Liberal MP for Coventry from 1854 until his death in 1865.