Houghton Hall (Norfolk)

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The facade of Houghton Hall 2007
The facade of Houghton Hall from Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus . The corner towers were replaced by domes during construction.

Houghton Hall is a country house in the English county of Norfolk . David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, lives there .

The house was built for the de facto first British Prime Minister , Sir Robert Walpole , and holds a key position in the history of Palladianism in England. English Heritage has listed it as a Grade I Historic Building. The country house is surrounded by 4 km² of parkland adjacent to Sandringham House .

This has a rectangular main building, the ground floor from rural, a main floor consists -Obergeschoss and an attic. Two lower wings flank this main building. They are connected to it by colonnades . There is a separate, square block of stables to the south of the house.

The exterior of the house is great, but also restrained, and is made of fine-grain, silver-white stone. The domes designed by Gibbs can be found at the corners. In accordance with the customs of Palladianism, the interior of the house is much more colorful, lush and opulent than the exterior.

The parkland surrounding Houghton Hall was redesigned by Charles Bridgeman in the 18th century . In the process, the old village of Houghton was demolished and rebuilt outside the park, with the exception of the medieval parish church, which has been extensively restored.

history

Fireplace in the hall of Hoghton Hall (Norfolk), Houghton Hall, Norfolk The Plans, Elevations and Sections, Chimney-pieces and Cielings [sic] of Houghton in Norfolk, 1735 Victoria & Albert Museum, no. 13095

The new country house was built in place of the previous houses of the Walpole family. Sir Robert Walpole was named 1st Earl of Orford in 1742. The house then passed to his son, 2nd Earl, and from there to his grandson, 3rd Earl . After the death of the 3rd Earl, the property fell to his uncle, Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford . After his death in 1797, his fortune went to the family of his sister, Lady Cholmondeley , who had died at the age of only 26 in 1731, more than 65 years before the inheritance.

Sir Robert Walpole's daughter, Mary, had married George Cholmondeley, 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley , and Houghton Hall was remodeled and maintained by subsequent generations of the Cholmondeley family. Colonel Robert Walpole borrowed a book on the Archbishop of Bremen from the library at Sidney Sussex College in 1667 or 1668 and failed to return it. 288 years later, in the mid-1950s, this book was discovered and returned at Houghton Hall.

The house remained largely unchanged despite the Victorian slope of renovation and "improvement". Houghton Hall is still owned by the Marquess of Cholmondeley and parts of the house and estate are open to the public year round.

Houghton Hall appeared in Breathless Beauty, Broken Beauty by art filmmaker Vanessa Jane Hall , which was recognized in an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2014 . The great interior design was captured in incredible detail in the film.

art

Houghton Hall contained part of Sir Robert Walpole's magnificent collection of paintings, which his grandson, George Walpole, sold to Catherine the Great in Russia in 1779 to pay off some of the debts accumulated on the estate. In today's collection you can find z. B. Thomas Gainsborough's oil painting of his own family.

Jean-Baptiste Oudry's The White Duck, a painting stolen from Houghton Hall in 1990.

Walpole's collection of Roman marble busts was also noteworthy.

In the early 1990s, Hans Holbein's painting Lady with a Croissant and Star from 1528 was removed from the walls of Houghton Hall, where it had hung since 1780. It was auctioned to pay inheritance tax and the maintenance of the house and gardens. Negotiations eventually led to the sale of the painting to the National Gallery for £ 17 million, which was tax-free due to UK regulations governing the sale of works of art of national standing.

In the 21st century, inflation in the art market has created tremendous temptations for many old families with significant art collections. In recent years the Cholmondeley family has given several pieces to the Victoria and Albert Museum as compensation for inheritance taxes . Other paintings, such as William Hogarth's portrait of the Cholmondeley family, are unlikely to be sold, so it can still be seen at Houghton Hall. But the Marquis admits that he is very much aware of the risk of theft. Jean-Baptiste Oudry's White Duck , stolen from the Cholmondeley collection in 1990, has disappeared to this day.

Parkland and Gardens

Charles Bridgeman's landscaping structure of Houghton Hall parkland remains unchanged. Its “twisting wilderness paths” were laid out at the beginning of the 18th century and have been maintained ever since.

Bridgeman replaced the formal geometry of the interrupted avenues with groups of sparse forest and parklands, which in his view contrasted better with the imperative architecture of the mansion.

Sectional drawing of a sunken Ha-Ha like the one Charles Bridgeman planned for Houghton Hall

The Ha-Has at Houghton Hall were an innovation attributed to Bridgeman. Horace Walpole explained in his Essays upon Modern Gardening , published in 1780 :

“The contiguous ground of the park without the sunk fence was to be harmonized with the lawn within; and the garden in its turn was to be set free from its prim regularity, that it might assort with the wilder country without. " (German: "The adjacent ground of the park outside the sunken fence had to be adapted to the lawn inside. And the garden, in turn, had to be freed of its brittle regularity so that it fits the wilder land outside." )

Sir Robert Walpole had a water tower built in 1731/1732 with the appearance of an architectural folly . It was designed by Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke . In 1982 it was restored.

In this well-established context, David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley , had a number of sculptures set in recent years. To the west of the house is a circle of Cornish slate at the end of a path cleared in the grass. This land art detail was designed by the British sculptor Richard Long .

Two modern follys lie on a wooded area to the side of the west facade.

The American artist James Turrell created "Skyspace" for Houghton Hall. From the outside, Turrell's construction reveals itself as an oak-clad building on stilts. Inside, the viewer's gaze is directed upwards and inevitably lured to reflect on the sky framed by the open roof.

“The Sybil Hedge” is another folly nearby. It is based on the signature of the current Marquis' grandmother, Sybil Sassoon . The Scottish artist Anya Gallaccio has created a coffin-like marble structure that lies at the end of a path. Nearby is a beech hedge planted in the shape of Sybil's signature.

A 20,000 m², enclosed kitchen garden lies beyond the stables. Over time, its productive area was reduced and the enclosure was overgrown with grass. In 1996 the fallow enclosure was redesigned and laid out. The effort paid off in 2007 when this garden was voted Historic Houses Association and Christie's Garden of the Year . Yew hedges divide the space into a formal network of discrete areas or "spaces", each of which evokes a different interest or mood. The hedges, some cut like curtains, add height and shape. The garden rooms are z. For example, an Italian section with box-like partitions , a formal rose garden modeled on one of William Kent's ceilings in the manor house, a French garden with interwoven linden and plum trees planted with spring onions, and a croquette lawn .

The Danish artist Jeppe Hein created "Water Flame", a sculpture with a fountain for this garden. In all seasons, this fountain with a ball of flames above it represents a 21st century folly on a smaller scale than the contemporary pieces outside the garden walls.

Model soldiers

The Houghton Hall stables are home to the collection of model soldiers from the Cholmondeleys, formerly housed at Cholmondeley Castle and brought to Houghton Hall shortly after it opened to the public in 1980. Hugh Cholmondeley, 6th Marquess of Cholmondeley began the collection in 1928 and expanded it throughout his life to include 20,000 figures today.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Restoration man: the story of Houghton Hall . Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  2. ^ Images of England: Houghton Hall . English Heritage. Archived from the original on October 23, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 27, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imagesofengland.org.uk
  3. ^ A b c d e Caroline Donald: The new garden at Houghton Hall, King's Lynn, Norfolk in The Times . London, May 11, 2008. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  4. ↑ Samuel Lewis, `` A Popular Guide to Norfolk Place Names, '' The Lark's Press, 1991 ISBN 0-948400-15-3 (p. 25) . Books.google.co.uk, (Retrieved March 27, 2015).
  5. ^ Good Stuff IT Services: Church of St Martin, Houghton . British Listed Buildings. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  6. ↑ Donna Vickroy: Throwing the book at library scofflaws in Southtown Star . Chicago, February 1, 2009.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 25, 2015.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.southtownstar.com  
  7. ^ Thomas Gainsborough, with His Wife and Elder Daughter, Mary , ca. 1751–1752. ( Memento of the original from August 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 27, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / galeria.klp.pl
  8. ^ Adolph Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain . 1882, p. 324. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  9. ^ Carol Vogel: The Art Market in New York Times . February 21, 1992. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  10. ^ Carol Vogel: Inside Art in New York Times . March 4, 1994. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  11. ↑ Chris Bryant: Heritage for sale in Times . London, July 17, 2007. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  12. ^ Sarah Lyall: A Titian Is No Longer at Large; Its Thief Is in the New York Times . September 19, 2002. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  13. ↑ Michael Conan: Baroque Garden Cultures: Emulation, Sublimation, Subversion, p. 399. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  14. ^ Ian D. Whyte: Landscape and History since 1500 . 2002, p. 81. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  15. ^ Horace Walpole: Essay upon Modern Gardening . 1780 ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved March 27, 2015.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gardenvisit.com
  16. ↑ Walpole was unaware that the technical innovation had been published in Dezailler d'Argenville's La theorie et la pratique du jardinage (1709), which had been translated into English by the architect John James in 1712 .
  17. ^ Soldier Museum . Houghton Hall. ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 27, 2015.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / houghtonhall.com
  18. ↑ The Cholmondeley Collection of Model Soldiers . Booklet for visitors. Houghton Hall.

swell

Web links

Commons : Houghton Hall (Norfolk)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 49 ′ 36.8 "  N , 0 ° 39 ′ 27.4"  E