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Hackwood Park stands to the south of Basingstoke, and the view here is from the southeast. Built by the 1st Duke of Bolton in 1683-87, the house appears in the distance to the left, small but crisply rendered, with its statue of George I (a royal gift to the 3rd Duke, showing the king as a Roman emperor on horseback) clearly visible in front. The painting was commissioned by Charles, 5th Duke, who held the title from 1758 until his untimely death, by his own hand, in 1765. The Duke's architect, John Vardy, had been making improvements to the house, altering the south front in particular, and the view may well have been painted as a record and celebration of these; perhaps there were changes in the surrounding park and farmlands also. It was probably Vardy who suggested Paul Sandby for the commission. Around the same time Sandby painted a larger view of another of the Duke of Bolton's properties, Bolton Park in Yorkshire (Sotheby's sale, London, July 9, 1986, no. 83), and the two canvases in all likelihood hung as decorations in the Duke's London house at 37 Grosvenor Square-where Vardy was also in charge of a scheme of improvements. Sandby worked mostly in watercolor and gouache, and this is one of just a handful of country-house views that he painted in oils; its light, relatively even tone and slightly chalky coloring suggest those other, more familiar techniques of his, although the scale is of course much larger. The painting gives remarkably little idea of the best known feature of Hackwood Park, which is the large classical garden created around the house by the 1rst three Dukes of Bolton. This was laid out on French lines, with a geometric pattern of avenues, canals, and basins, as well as classical pavilions designed by James Gibbs. Sandby has taken his view from such a distance that we see nothing of all this but the parterre to the south of the house and the evenly planted row of trees along an avenue leading away to the east. Clearly it pleased the 5th Duke to regard the setting of his house as rustic rather than formal, and his choice bears witness to a general shift of taste around this time, the beginnings of the "picturesque" movement. In this respect the work stands in striking contrast to Siberechts's view of Wollaton (no. 7), where the park is marked off from nature rather than integrated. The delight in the rough informality of the country carries over into the comic depiction of the farm workers and horses in the foreground, who are taking their midday rest during wheat harvesting. To the right a man and woman have fallen asleep and another woman is dangling something from her pitchfork, perhaps a blade of grass, to tickle the man's nose. Again, Sandby brings into play something of his practice as a watercolorist, allowing himself a levity not normally found in the "higher" art of oil painting.

[1] Sotheby's sale, London, July 9, 1986 (no. 83).



Malcolm Warner

Malcolm Warner, This other Eden, paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 76, no. 25, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)