Humphry Repton | Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening, [1794]

Humphry Repton

Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening. London: Printed by W. Bulmer and Co., Shakspeare Printing-Office, and sold by J. and J. Boydell ... and by G. Nicol, [1794]

FIRST EDITION, oblong folio (290 x 385 mm), half-title, 16 aquatint plates, 14 with overlays, 10 finely hand-coloured, and 4 double-page, also with woodcut in-text illustrations, modern cloth, some fraying, creasing and small tears to plates, one with tape repairs to verso, occasional spotting and staining especially to preliminaries, otherwise a fine copy with wide margins

"To improve the scenery of a country, and to display its native beauties with advantage, is an Art which originated in England, and has therefore been called English Gardening; yet as this expression is not sufficiently appropriate [...] I have adopted the term Landscape Gardening as most proper, because the art can only be advanced and perfected by the united powers of the landscape painter and the practical gardener." (Introduction)

THE FIRST EDITION OF REPTON'S FIRST BOOK ON LANDSCAPE GARDENING. It was drawn from the famous Red Books which Repton produced for prospective clients, especially the Red Book for Welbeck, and replicates the Red Books' characteristic overlays that allowed him to show landscapes both before and after his proposed improvements. Sketches and Hints covers a range of subjects from the use of avenues to finding variety in shades of green. Repton also attempted to address contemporary accusations that his reshaping of landscapes enforced the centralising power of the landowner at the expense of picturesque local variety and tradition.

LITERATURE:

Abbey, Scenery, 388