To launch next year’s tercentenary celebrations of his birth in 1727, a garden dedicated to the life and legacy of the renowned English portraitist Thomas Gainsborough will debut at this summer’s RHS Sandringham Flower Show (22–26 July).
The garden, designed by the award-winning landscape designer, horticulturist and writer Frederic Whyte, will be a living canvas of Gainsborough’s cultural landscape. It is inspired by the artist’s work and features from the garden at Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury, Suffolk.
The artist’s original use of chiaroscuro (which translates from Italian as light-dark) has also been used to create visual layers, while Gainsborough’s meticulous attention to fabric, texture and colour has influenced the choice of colours for his planting palette. Pastel pinks and yellows create a soft, painterly atmosphere. The rich greens and sky blues of the Suffolk landscape are replicated in the romantic, naturalistic perimeter zones, whilst a vibrant ‘meadow’ surrounds a seating area.
The new garden at Sandringham will reference further elements that can be found in its counterpart at Gainsborough’s birthplace; such as limewashed walls which recall Suffolk buildings and the colour of the property’s garden elevation. At one end, visitors will see a north-facing garden studio, which evokes an artist’s working space, while a pair of golden yew trees echo the two sentinels in the Sudbury garden.
The famous 400-year-old mulberry tree, which was already a century old when Gainsborough was born, will be represented by a smaller specimen at Sandringham, while a mirror-like pool will reflect the beautiful, vast East Anglian skies overhead.
Gardeners will be keen to know that the stylised copse of Acer campestre, Betula pendula, Crataegus monogyna and Fagus sylvatica reference the Suffolk landscapes painted by Gainsborough. The predominance of roses in the ornamental planting, echo the floral details of his portraits and the overall colour scheme has been inspired by selected Gainsborough society portraits, including Portrait of Countess Howe, The Hon. Mrs Graham and Portrait of Ann Ford.
The RHS garden’s highlight plants will be the Morus alba (known as white mulberry, common mulberry and silkworm mulberry) recalls the ancient tree of the same genus at Gainsborough’s House. As do the twin Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata aureomarginata’ (golden Irish Yew) replicating the pair in Sudbury. A selection of roses and dahlias will recreate several colourways found in Gainsborough’s portraits. The inclusion of Betula pendula (Silver Birch) and other native trees recall the wispy background trees in Gainsborough’s portrait paintings and landscape sketches.
Two specially designed garden daybeds provide opportunities for visitors to rest and chat or allow a pause for reflection. The feeling of being one of Gainsborough’s portrait subjects is added to by the inclusion of one of his favourite ‘props’, an urn, sited at the end of a path, through a stylised copse. A chestnut fence replicates those seen in his famous landscapes and portraits, perhaps most notably Mr and Mrs Andrews (c.1750) which shows the couple on their estate, Auberies in Bulmer Tye, just four miles from Sudbury.
Other parts of the garden, such as paving slabs and cobbles have been selected to reference the limestone paving of 18th-century Bath and London. The hoggin path evokes country paths.
The garden’s designer, Frederic Whyte says: ‘Thomas Gainsborough’s work explored the interface of art and nature: a great creative departure point for our garden at RHS Sandringham. Gainsborough’s sensitivity towards the landscape, colour and texture has informed the design throughout. The garden is a fitting celebration of the artist’s life and work and also serves as a timely reminder that gardens themselves are -or should be- works of art themselves’.
Calvin Winner, Director of Gainsborough’s House thinks that the artist would be delighted to have such a special garden created in his memory:“It’s hard to think of an artist more connected to his love of nature than Thomas Gainsborough. He spent his entire life wanting to paint landscapes and even when painting portraits, he would often frame sitters in a landscape or garden setting. His artistic imagination remained firmly rooted in his East Anglia childhood and the Suffolk landscape his art helped to define. Gainsborough’s House is grateful to Frederic Whyte for his wonderful garden design inspired by the historic garden at Gainsborough’s birthplace in Suffolk.”
When the RHS Sandringham Flower Show closes on 26 July, elements of the garden will be repurposed in various locations or returned to supporters and nurseries.
For more information about the RHS Sandringham Flower Show, www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-sandringham-flower-show and Gainsborough’s House, visit – www.gainsborough.org