The Romantic View

The Romantic View

No~ 2 · S P R I N G 2 0 1 6

{ Spring Snow }

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Karl Marx: ‘Now, regarding my work, I will tell you the plain truth about it. There are three more chapters to be written to complete the theoretical part (the first three books). Then there is still the fourth book, the historicalliterary one, to be written, which will, comparatively speaking, be the easiest part for me, since all the problems have been resolved in the first three books, so that this last one is more by way of repetition in historical form. But I cannot bring myself to send anything off until I have the whole thing in front of me.

Whatever shortcomings they may have, the advantage of my writings is that they are an artistic whole, and this can only be achieved through my practice of never having things printed until I have them in front of me in their entirety. This is impossible with Jacob Grimm’s method which is in general better with writings that have no dialectical structure.’

Letter sent from London [31 July 1865], to Engels in Manchester Marx/Engels Collected Works [MECW], Vol. 42, p.172. First published in Der Briefwechsel Zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, 1913.

‘Truly free labour, e.g., composition, is damned serious at the same time, it is the most intensive exertion.

The work of material production can acquire this character only by [1] having its social character affirmed and [2] having a scientific character and being universal labour, the exertion of a man not as a tamed natural force, but as a subject which appears in the process of production not only in its natural form and development as part of nature, but as an activity regulating all natural forces. ’ Grundrisse [Foundations] of the Critique of Political Economy [Rough Draft] Notebook VI, the chapter on capital, written 1857–61, published in German 1939–41 Grundrisse, Penguin Books in association with the New Left Review, 1973, translated by Martin Nicolaus

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front cover

left

Claude Monet, Adolphe Monet in the Garden of Le Coteau

Claude Monet, Water Lilies (Agapanthus) [c.1915–26],

at Sainte-Adresse [1867], oil on canvas, 83 × 101 cm,

oil on canvas, 201 × 426 cm, The Cleveland Museum of Art,

courtesy Larry Ellison Collection

John L. Severance Fund and an anonymous gift 1960.81

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The Roman tic View Issue No.2 Spring 2016 Published by Mary Mc Caughey

First day of Spring, 22 March, 2016 Dear Reader,

mary@theromanticview.com Design & production by Tim Barnes herechickychicky.com Printed in London by

I am delighted to welcome you to the second issue of The Romantic View — Spring 2016 — and what a truly long and beautiful spring we have been graced with this year! After some initial confusion from the mild winter, and a cooler spring, the weather really helped to extend the display of spring bulbs.

In a letter sent from Cologne in 1843 to his friend Arnold Ruge, Karl Marx writes,

Art Quarters Press

‘Whatever is necessary adapts itself. Although I do not underestimate the obstacles, therefore, I have no doubt that they can be overcome. It is becoming clearer every day that independent, thinking people must seek out a new centre. I am convinced that our plan would satisfy a real need and real needs must be satisfied in reality. I shall have no doubts once we begin in earnest.’

Spring is about beginnings. G.W.F. Hegel begins his introduction to The Science of Logic by pointing out that it can indeed seem as if it were impossible to make a beginning at all:

The Romantic View was founded by Mary Mc Caughey in 2015 as a reflective quarterly, produced and distributed at the end of each season.

An annual subscription for four issues is £40 post-free to anywhere in the world.

We are grateful for donations of any amount.

‘We can assume nothing, and assert nothing dogmatically; nor can we accept the assertions and assumptions of others. And yet me must make a beginning: and a beginning, as primary and underived, makes an assumption, or rather is an assumption. It seems as if it were impossible to make a beginning at all.’

Contributions provide unrestricted operating support, helping make possible the seasonal publication of The Romantic View and a related

‘Romanticism and modern art are one and the same thing,’ wrote the French poet Charles Baudelaire in 1846.

programme of events promoting the appreciation of the art and beauty of our world.

Romanticism properly begins as a universal movement around the middle of the nineteenth century in

Please email mary@theromanticview.com to subscribe or donate.

France but the great Romantic movement begins in England in the middle of the eighteenth century, one

St. James’s Park, London [22 March 2016]

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hundred years before, expressing itself above all in poetry and in the English garden — the great symbol of

Spring is about beginnings and fluttering spring blossom but also it is the end of winter. Very soon the

the age. The result of English conditions, the birth of romanticism mirrors the ascent of England in poli-

greatest and most international scholarly work of its kind ever to be produced, the MEGA — i.e. the

tics, arts and the sciences, an ascent that also gives the Enlightenment in France its decisive impulse. The

complete writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels — will be completed. These works started to come

French writers of the period see in English institutions the quintessence of progress and build up a legend

together as ‘an artistic whole’ through Karl Marx’s own labour, writing at his desk number seven in the

around English liberalism (a legend which only partly corresponds to reality).

British Library from 1850, when he obtained a member’s card. Just before the first world war, the émigré

Romanticism in England established the idea of the artistic genius with his originality and subjectivism

Russian Marxist scholar David Riazanov returned to the British Library, where he dedicated himself to the

and for the first time the ideal of the creative personality arises.

collection and publication of the collected writings of Marx and Engels. In 1921 he established the MarxEngels Institute in Moscow and from here, in 1926 the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe [MEGA], was launched

Post-French Revolution romanticism reflects a new outlook on life and the world and, above all, it creates a

and projected to be completed in 36 volumes. David Riazanov acquired, prepared and published for the first

new interpretation of the idea of artistic freedom. This freedom is no longer the privilege of the genius, but

time previously unknown writings of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels including The German Ideology, and

the birthright of every artist and every gifted individual. The birth of Romanticism in England allowed only

sections of The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, The Critique of Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’

the genius to deviate from the rules but romanticism proper denies the validity of objective rules of any

and Dialectics of Nature. Riazanov also edited the works of other authors including Diderot, Feuerbach, and

kind. All individual expression is unique, irreplaceable and bears its own laws and standards within itself;

Hegel.

this insight is the great insight of the French Revolution for art. The Romantic movement now becomes a

war of liberation not only against academies, churches, courts, patrons, amateurs, critics and masters, but

1989 Amsterdam’s respected International Institute of Social History [IISG], which also held most of the

against the very principle of tradition, authority and rule. The struggle is unthinkable without the intellec-

original manuscripts, was instrumental in setting up an International Marx Engels Foundation [IMES], a

tual atmosphere created by the Revolution. It owes both its initiation and its influence to the Revolution.

politically independent organization that assumed scientific responsibility for the project. The scope of

The whole of modern art is to a certain degree the result of this romantic fight for freedom.

the work amounts to 114 volumes — 55 of which have been published to date — and is being produced by

MEGA resumed in Moscow and (East-) Berlin during the 1960s. After the Berlin Wall came down in

The Revolution had demonstrated that no human institution is unalterable; any idea imposed on the

teams of scholars from Germany, Russia, France, the Netherlands, Austria, the USA, and Japan and is also

artist had lost its claim to represent a higher norm, and all compulsion only awakened his doubts and suspi-

sponsored by the European Union. From the outset IMES has endeavoured to ensure that the project is

cion. The principles of order and discipline lost their stimulating influence and the liberal idea became

not constrained by any partisan political allegiances. It is being published by the 260 year old independent

from now on-yes, indeed, only from now on-a source of artistic inspiration.

academic publishing company De Gruyter which is headquartered in Berlin, with offices in Basel, Beijing,

From now on the state loses all influence on art and the artist. Great artists from Matisse to Renoir

Boston and Munich.

almost starve waiting for the support of private individuals and patrons to support them. In spite of the

If we as people adapt ourselves to meeting our real needs maybe this great work, the capital of many

prizes, gifts and distinctions which he bestowed on them, Napoleon was unable to spur on his artists and

people’s labour is ready now because we need it now.

writers to achieve anything of importance. Art ceases to be a social activity guided by objective and conventional criteria, and becomes an activity of self-expression creating its own standards; it becomes in a word, the medium through which single individuals speaks to single individuals. As soon as the artist begins to paint, to compose or to write, he is and feels alone.

HORATIO

‘If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit.’

As Arnold Hauser writes: HAMLET

‘Romanticism was not merely a universal European movement, seizing one nation after another and creating

‘Not a whit. We defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of

a universal literary language which was finally as intelligible in Russia and Poland as in England or France

a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now.

but has remained a lasting factor in the development of art. There is, in fact, no product of modern art, no

If it be not now, yet it will come — the readiness is all. Since no man of

emotional impulse, no impression or mood of the modern man, which does not owe its delicacy and variety

aught he leaves knows, what is’t to leave betimes? Let be. ’

to the sensitiveness which developed out of romanticism.

‘Romanticism created a decisive turning point in the history of the human mind. Today we are living in a new

Mary Mc Caughey

golden age for scholarship. Our vast global wealth, the rapid developments in science, medicine, arts and technology and global interconnectedness between the brightest and the best of us, in our respective fields and across different fields of endeavor, creates real needs for knowledge and for overcoming obstacles in our work and in our free expression as individual human beings.’

Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, Vol. 2, translated in collaboration

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,

with the author by Stanley Godman, Routledge and Kegan Paul [1951]

Act V, Scene 2 [c.1599–1602]

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Spring Snow — ‘a novel with the perfect beauty of a Japanese garden... a classic of Japanese Literature.’

Chicago Sun Times

‘That peculiar charm of the inaccessible.’

Now as she stood talking with the Prince,

very tall trees stood at graceful intervals in the

Kiyoaki watched her profile. Her face was lit with

foreground, each placed so as to complement the

a faint glow from the setting sun, and as he looked

overall harmony of the landscape. It was impos-

on from the other side of the group, he thought of

sible to tell what kind they were, but their heavy

a crystal sparking far away, the faint note of a koto,

top branches seemed to bend in the wind with a

a distant mountain valley — all alike imbued with

tragic grandeur. The discreet expanse of plains

that peculiar charm of the inaccessible. As the

glowed faintly; this side of the mountains, the

background of trees and sky gradually darkened,

vegetation lay flat and desolate. At the corner

moreover, her profile became still more brightly

of the picture, minute stood the plain wooden

etched, like Mount Fuji’s silhouette, caught by the

cenotaph and the altar with flowers lying on

setting sun.

it, its white cloth twisted by the wind. For the *

S P R I NG

SNOW

rest you saw nothing but soldiers, thousands of

Two members of the Matsugae family, Kikoaki’s

them. In the foreground, they were turned away

uncles, had been killed. His grandmother still

from the camera to reveal the white sunshields

received a pension from the government, thanks

hanging from their caps and the diagonal leather

to these two sons she had lost, but she never used

straps across their backs. They had not formed in

the money; she left the envelopes unopened on

neat ranks, but were clustered in groups, heads

the hedge of the household shrine. Perhaps that

drooping. A mere handful in the lower left hand

was why the photograph which impressed Kiyoaki

corner had half-turned their dark faces towards

most out of the entire collection of war photo-

the camera, like figures in a Renaissance painting.

graphs in the house was one entitled Vicinity of

Further behind them, a host of soldiers stretched

Tokuri Temple: Memorial Services for the War Dead

away in an immense semicircle to the ends of the

and dated 26 June 1904, the thirty-seventh year

plain, so many men that it was impossible to tell

of the Meiji era. This photograph, printed in sepia

one from another, and more were grouped far

ink, was quite unlike the usual cluttered mementos

away among the trees.

of the war. It had been composed with an artist’s

The figures of these soldiers, in both foreground

He was daydreaming, and his thoughts, moving

two facts seemed to be a strange twist of fortune,

eye for structure: it really made it seem as if the

and rear were bathed in the strange half-light that

like the sea, gradually turned from the rhythm of

something to seize and cling to in time of danger.

thousands of soldiers who were present were

outlined leggings and boots and picked out the

the waves to that of the long, slow passage of time,

And indeed it was Satoka, unmistakable in her

arranged deliberately. Like figures in a painting, to

curves of bent shoulders and the napes of necks.

and hence to the inevitably of growing old — and

long-sleeved kimono as she came along the path

focus the entire attention of the viewer on the tall

The light charged the entire picture with an inde-

he suddenly caught his breadth. He has never

beside the pond toward the main house with her

cenotaph of unpainted wood in their midst.

scribable sense of grief.

looked forward to the wisdom and other vaunted

parents beside her. Even at a distance, Kiyoaki

In the distance, mountains sloped gently in

From these men, there emanated a tangible

benefits of old age. Would he be able to die young —

could see that the kimono was a beautiful cher-

the haze, rising in easy stages to the left of the

emotion that broke in a wave against the small

and if possible free of all pain? A graceful death —

ry-blossom pink, its pattern reminiscent of the

picture, away from the broad plain at their foot;

white altar, the flowers, the cenotaph in their

as a richly patterned kimono, thrown carelessly

fresh green profusion of a spring meadow. As she

to the right, they merged in the distance with

midst. From the enormous mass stretching to

across a polished table, slides unobtrusively sown

turned her head momentarily, pointing out the

scattered clumps of trees, vanishing into the

the edge of the plain, a single thought, beyond

into the darkness of the floor beneath. A death

island, he caught a glimpse of her profile, the deli-

yellow dust of the horizon. And here, instead

all power of human expression, bore down like a

marked by elegance.

cate pallor of her cheek set off by the shining black

of mountains, there was a row of tres growing

great, heavy ring of iron on the centre. Both its age

The thought of dying suddenly spurred him

hair ... At this moment he could tell himself without

taller as the eye moved to the right; a yellow

and its sepia ink tinged the photograph with an

with a desire to see Satoko, if only for a moment.

a qualm: ‘I love her. I’m madly in love with her.’

sky showed through the gape between them. Six

atmosphere of infinite poignance.

He telephoned Tadeshina and then hurriedly left

They had none of Satoka’s delicate coordina-

the house. There was no doubt that Satoko was

tion. A gift that comes only with a sure sense of

full of life and beauty, as he himself was — these

elegance.

from

Yukio Mishima, Spring Snow [1969]

Spring Snow [春の雪 / Haru no Yuki] is the first novel in Yukio Mishima’s Sea of Fertility tetralogy It was published serially by Shincho- [1965–67] and then in book form [1969] Translation by Michael Gallagher published by Vintage [2000], © Alfred A. Knopf, Inc [1972]

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DELACROIX

‘Inspiration is getting to our studies at 9 am.’

Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art, National Gallery, London, 17 February – 22 May 2016 Organised by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the National Gallery, London Exhibition curators: Christopher Riopelle, Curator of Post-1800 Paintings, National Gallery, London; Patrick Noon, Patrick and Aimee Butler Chair of Paintings at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Catalogue: Patrick Noon and Christopher Riopelle Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art, published by National Gallery Company, in association with Minneapolis Institute of Art, distributed by Yale University Press

Eugène Delacroix, Self Portrait [c. 1837], oil on canvas, 55 × 65 cm,

Quotes from the The Journal of Eugène Delacroix,

photo by Jean-Gilles Berizzi, © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre)

translated by Walter Pach, Covici-Friede, New York [1937]

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Henri Matisse: ‘Since I didn’t travel very much, it didn’t take many days to stock my memory with sights that I can still bring clearly to mind. During a longer stay, you get absolutely nothing out of it for days and days and days. But there’s this, too, that boredom in a new country has at least the merit of allowing the spirit of the country to sink in unconsciously. It’s quite possible that on excursions like that, the things that strike you are ones that relate to images you already know, images familiar from reading and photography. Whereas during a longer stay, when you’ve time to get bored, new things enter your head, things that you’re not aware of at the time, but in the course they make up a whole idea of the country.

‘Once the rain had fallen, out of that wet earth there sprang quite marvelous bulb-shaped flowers and greenery. And all the hills that surround Tangiers, which were as tawny as a lion’s skin before, became the most extraordinary green, with rather tormented skies, as in Delacroix’s paintings. In short, Delacroix’s pictures are an accurate representation of the Moroccan landscape from Tangiers to Tetuan-the part planted with trees. I stayed in Tangiers until April, working there, still seeking the same goal, which basically was trying to find myself through various motifs. And I came back in spring to Issy-les-Moulineaux. I found my garden terribly cramped, quite the opposite of what I had imagined in Morocco. I thought I couldn’t any longer take an interest in the little things around the outskirts of Paris, but I found the lawn in front of the house so abundant and the flowers so close at hand that I really felt the difference between the two countries.

‘The following year I went to Morocco again, but to make a proper season of it, I thought, ‘I’ll go in October’ But in October — in fact until January — it was a completely unfamiliar Morocco: all yellow, the earth tawny coloured, the grass burned up by the summer surf. I had to endure the torrential rains again before rediscovering the springtime Morocco that had so enchanted me the year before. I worked in the Casbah, in an Arab café overlooking the whole roadstead, and from there I saw the entire landscape that Delacroix had copied to put in his The Capture of Constantinople. I made a very exact drawing of it. I can’t claim to have discovered this. I was told about it. Delacroix’s landscape in The Capture of Constantinople is the view from the Casbah with the hills around Tangiers as background.

‘One curious memory comes back to me about a trip from Tangiers to Tetuan. At the time, it was possible only on muleback. We left from the Hotel des France, four or five of us, all guests at the hotel, each perched on a mule with a wide flat Arab saddle, one of those saddles you think you’ll be able to hold out forty-eight hours on. We left very early, accompanied by two Arabs, one a guide and the other looking after food. Leaving Tangiers, we went down into a beautiful valley that was very wide and full of all kinds of grass and greenery, tall grass that came up to the mules’ necks, with big daisies and buttercups; we went through this sort of sea of flowers as though no one had ever been that way before. None of it trodden down: we were entering a pure, virginal field of grasses while the morning was at its most beautiful. It was exquisite. There were hills all around us and at that point I thought to myself: ‘But I’ve already seen this! I know this!’ It wasn’t new to me;

‘Always, at the back of your soul, there is something that says to you, “Mortal, drawn from eternal life for a short time, think how precious these moments are.” ’

it came back to me afterward that what I saw there had been described by Loti. There’s a description of these valleys by Loti ... I can tell you, at that moment, I had the most extraordinary respect for Loti asa painter.

Later I discovered the description, in Roman d’un Spahi. It was precisely the landscape around Tangiers.’

from

Chatting with Matisse: the Lost 1941 Interview, edited by Serge Guilbaut, Tate Publishing [2013]

Eugène Delacroix, Convulsionists of Tangier [1837–38], oil on canvas, 98 × 131 cm, © The Minneapolis Institute of Art, bequest of J. Jerome Hill 73.42.3

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T H E GAR D EN O F EDEN

In its instinctive and natural stage, spiritual life wears the garb of innocence and confiding simplicity; but the very essence of spirit implies the absorption of this immediate condition in something higher.

from

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences, extract from Part One II: ‘Preliminary Notion’ [1830 edition]

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When we compare the different forms of ascer-

we find, as was already said, that it exemplifies the

taining truth with one another, the first of them,

universal bearings of knowledge upon the spiritual

immediate knowledge, may perhaps seem the

life. In its instinctive and natural stage, spiritual

finest, noblest, and most appropriate. It includes

life wears the garb of innocence and confiding

everything which the moralists term innocence as

simplicity; but the very essence of spirit implies

well as religious feeling, simple trust, love, fidelity,

the absorption

and natural faith. The two other forms, first reflec-

of this immediate condition in something higher.

tive, and secondly philosophical cognition, must

The spiritual is distinguished from the natural,

leave that unsought natural harmony behind. And

and more especially from the animal, life, in the

so far as they have this in common, the methods

circumstance that it does not continue a mere

which claim to apprehend the truth by thought

stream of tendency, but sunders itself to self-re-

may naturally be regarded as part and parcel of the

alisation. But this position of severed life has in

pride which leads man to trust to his own powers

its turn to be suppressed, and the spirit has by its

for a knowledge of the truth. Such a position

own act to win its way to concord again. The final

involves a thorough-going disruption, and, viewed

concord then is spiritual; that is, the principle of

in that light, might be regarded as the source of

restoration is found in thought, and thought only.

all evil and wickedness — the original transgres-

The hand that inflicts the wound is also

sion. Apparently therefore the only way of being

the hand which heals it.

reconciled and restored to peace is to surrender all

claims to think or know.

first human beings, the types of humanity, were

We are told in our story that Adam and Eve, the

This lapse from natural unity has not escaped

placed in a garden, where grew a tree of life and

notice, and nations from the earliest times have

a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God, it

asked the meaning of the wonderful division of

is said, had forbidden them to eat of the fruit of

the spirit against itself. No such inward disunion is

this latter tree: of the tree of life for the present

found in nature: natural things do nothing wicked.

nothing further is said. These words evidently

*

assume that man is not intended to seek knowl-

The Mosaic legend of the Fall of Man has preserved

edge, and ought to remain in the state of innocence.

an ancient picture representing the origin and

Other meditative races, it may be remarked, have

consequences of this disunion. The incidents of

held the same belief that the primitive state of

the legend form the basis of an essential article of

mankind was one of innocence and harmony. Now

the creed, the doctrine of original sin in man and

all this is to a certain extent correct. The disunion

his consequent need of succour . It may be well at

that appears throughout humanity is not a condi-

the commencement of logic to examine the story

tion to rest in. But it is a mistake to regard the

which treats of the origin and the bearings of the

natural and immediate harmony as the right state.

very knowledge which logic has to discuss. For,

The mind is not mere instinct: on the contrary, it

though philosophy must not allow herself to be

essentially involves the tendency to reasoning

overawed by religion, or accept the

and meditation. Childlike innocence no doubt

position of existence on sufferance, she cannot

has in it something fascinating and attractive:

afford to neglect these popular conceptions. The

but only because it reminds us of what the spirit

tales and allegories of religion, which have enjoyed

must win for itself. The harmoniousness of child-

for thousands of years the veneration of nations,

hood is a gift from the hand of nature: the second

are not to be set aside as antiquated even now.

harmony must spring from the labour and culture

Upon a closer inspection of the story of the Fall

of the spirit. And so the words of Christ, ‘Except

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Next comes the Curse, as it is called, which God

The theological doctrine of original sin is a

pronounced upon man. The prominent point in

profound truth; but modern enlightenment prefers

that curse turns chiefly on the contrast between

to believe that man is naturally good, and that he

man and nature. Man must work in the sweat of

acts right so long as he continues true to nature.

his brow: and woman bring forth in sorrow. As to

The hour when man leaves the path of mere

work, if it is the result of the disunion, it is also the

natural being marks the difference between him,

victory over it. The beasts have nothing more to

a self-conscious agent, and the natural world. But

do but to pick up the materials required to satisfy

this schism, though it forms a necessary element

their wants: man on the contrary can only satisfy

in the very notion of spirit, is not the final goal of

his wants by himself producing and transforming

man. It is to this state of inward breach that the

the necessary means. Thus even in these outside

whole finite action of thought and will belongs. In

things man is dealing with himself.

that finite sphere man pursues ends of his own and

The story does not close with the expulsion

draws from himself the material of his conduct.

from Paradise. We are further told, God said,

While he pursues these aims to the uttermost,

‘Behold Adam is become as one of us, to know

while his knowledge and his will seek himself, his

good and evil.’ Knowledge is now spoken of as

own narrow self apart from the universal, he is

divine, and not, as before, as something wrong

evil; and his evil is to be subjective. We seem at

and forbidden. Such words contain a confutation

first to have a double evil here: but both are really

of the idle talk that philosophy pertains only to

the same. Man in so far as he is spirit is not the

the finitude of the mind. Philosophy is knowledge,

creature of nature: and when he behaves as such,

and it is through knowledge that man first real-

and follows the cravings of appetite, he wills to

ises his original vocation, to be the image of God.

be so. The natural wickedness of man is therefore

When the record adds that God drove men out of

unlike the natural life of animals. A mere natural

the garden of Eden to prevent their eating of the

life may be more exactly defined by saying that the

tree of life, it only means that on his natural side

natural man as such is an individual: for nature in

certainly man is finite and mortal, but in knowl-

every part is in the bonds of individualism. Thus

edge infinite.

when man wills to be a creature of nature, he wills *

in the same degree to be an individual simply. Yet

We all know the theological dogma that man’s

against such impulsive and appetitive action, due

nature is evil, tainted with what is called Original

to the individualism of nature, there also steps in

Sin. Now while we accept the dogma, we must

the law or general principle. This law may either

ye become as little children’, etc., are very far from

participates when he breaks with the unity of his

telling us that we must always remain children.

instinctive being and eats of the forbidden fruit.

give up the setting of incident which represents

be an external force, or have the form of divine

Again, we find in the narrative of Moses that

The first reflection of awakened consciousness

original sin as consequent upon an accidental act

authority. So long as he continues in his natural

the occasion which led man to leave his natural

in men told them that they were naked. This is a

of the first man. For the very notion of spirit is

state, man is in bondage to the law.

unity is attributed to solicitation from without.

naive and profound trait. For the sense of shame

enough to show that man is evil by nature, and

The serpent was the tempter. But the truth is,

bears evidence to the separation of man from his

it is an error to imagine that he could ever be

of man, there are social or benevolent inclinations,

that the step into opposition, the awakening of

natural and sensuous life. The beasts never get

otherwise. To such extent as man is and acts like

love, sympathy, and others, reaching beyond his

consciousness, follows from the very nature of

so far as this separation, and they feel no shame.

a creature of nature, his whole behaviour is what

selfish isolation. But so long as these tendencies

man; and the same history repeats itself in every

And it is in the human feeling of shame that we

it ought not to be. For the spirit it is a duty to be

are instinctive, their virtual universality of scope

son of Adam. The serpent represents likeness to

are to seek the spiritual and moral origin of dress,

free, and to realise itself by its own act. Nature

and purport is vitiated by the subjective form

God as consisting in the knowledge of good and

compared with which the merely physical need is

is for man only the starting-point which he has

which always allows free play to self-seeking and

evil: and it is just this knowledge in which man

a secondary matter.

to transform.

random action.

v

Isabella Plantation, Richmond, London [Wednesday 4 May 2016], photo by Mary Mc Caughey

It is true that among the instincts and affections

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SEVEN GARDENS IN SPRING England, 2016 Photographs by Mary McCaughey

i

Prunus ‘Matsumae Hanagurame’ Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Saturday 30 April 2016

from

Yukio Mishima, Spring Snow [1969]

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‘What moves men of genius, or tather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.’

Eugène Delacroix

21

‘There can be nowhere more beautiful than Sissinghurst in the first few weeks of May, and I couldn’t stop myself wanting to be in the garden: mowing the lawns at dawn or enjoying the ethereal beauty of the White Garden at dusk’, Troy tells The English Garden magazine. ‘We must garden with a freedom and ease that comes with a deep absorption and close affinity with the place. It is only in this way that the style and spirit of the garden will be maintained, refined, enriched and enhanced. Therefore, I make no excuses for focusing my attention over the past few months on trying to understand the distinctiveness of Sissinghurst and the characters of its creators, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson: their philosophy, taste, motives, interests, gardening style, prejudices, constraints and ideas.’

Vita and Harold’s grandson, Adam Nicolson, also talks passionately to The English Garden about the spirit of place: ‘People don’t come to Sissinghurst because it is quite like everywhere else, shaped by the tasks of everywhere else, but because it is exceptionally itself. Its potential for beauty and richness needs to be entirely understood and made entirely explicit, not buried under a duvet of the average.’

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Adam cites the Italian musical term sprezzatura: ‘a state in which you are so in control you can afford to loosen up’, and as the spirit of the place he would like to see. ‘Beauty is the governing goddess at Sissinghurst. The place should be so over-brimming with plants, you can hardly move.’

The beautiful bond between the individual, the particular and the universal does seem very united at Sissinghurst. As you walk around the garden Troy has left hand-written notes for visitors drawing attention to particular plants or flowers or garden works taking place at the time.

This is an intellectual writer’s garden and later this year Vita’s library of more than 12,000 books, now owned by the National Trust, will go on display for a month in South Cottage at Sissinghurst. I have been looking through some of her library bookshelves, curious about the books we share.

Vita has most of Plato and Aristotle’s works, the Cedar Paul translation of Marx’s Capital Volumes I and II [1934], Huysman’s Against Nature, Thomas Mann’s This War [1940], books on Dutch flower painting (I spotted Dutch Flower Pieus by Percy Colson) and Romantic Painting (Bandits in a Landscape: A Study of Romantic Painting from Caravaggio to Delacroix) and Sir George Sitwell’s elegant book An Essay on the Making of Gardens; Being a Study of Old Italian Gardens, of the Nature of Beauty, and the Principles Involved in Garden

On the first Friday afternoon in May this year I was talking in the rose garden of Sissinghurst, with

Design [1909]. There is a book of Paul Dehn’s Romantic Landscape poems, Julie S.H. Pardoe’s The Beauty of

Troy Smith Scott, Sissinghurst’s head-gardener or in other words the world’s greatest gardener, as

the Bhosphurus [1838] (Vita had her first garden in Constantinople) and Oxford University Press’s To Persia

Sissinghurst is considered England’s finest garden. Troy finishes work at lunchtime on a Friday but had

For Flowers [1938].

come out to take notes of the work he needed to do in the garden in the week ahead.

It is well-known in gardening circles that Troy wants to make Sissinghurst ‘more romantic’ in keeping

being an incomplete introduction to the beauty and charm of a town we love by Count Ferdinand Czernin, with

Browsing these shelves there are also so many I still need — I have just ordered a copy of This Salzburg…

with Vita Sackville-West’s artistic spirit and he told me that Sissinghurst were at the early stages of

illustrations by Count Eugen Ledebur [1937], spotted on my last visit; Four Words (S.P.E. Tract no. XVII):

preparing an exhibition on Romantic Gardens. Troy’s vision means he wants to see much more ‘lavishness’

Romantic, originality, creative, genius, [1924] by Logan Pearsall Smith and the recently republished The

in the planting at Sissinghurst with it all feeling ‘looser and more billowing’. Troy is bringing back old-fash-

Beauties of Shakespeare: Selected from the Most Correct Editions of His Works [1830] by William Shakespeare

ioned English roses as well as the ‘shaggier’ outline of Harold and Vita’s day to the clipped Irish Yews in the

and Samuel Johnson. This may be Spring in the garden but I am looking ahead to winter and the work to

front courtyard.

be done. ii

Sissinghurst, Cranbrook, Kent [Friday 6 May 2016]

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The Romantic English tradition of landscape has always suggested continuity, the idea of a landscape not made but inherited, inspired by late-Renaissance renderings of classical antiquity, by Claude, Poussin and Piranesi, by paintings and engravings of the sublime.

Regent’s Park, surrounded by John Nash’s Roman-inspired circuses and grand avenues, belongs to this idea of the picturesque. It once housed a coliseum-shaped building to which visitors flocked to look at a painted panorama of London. It contains villas, lakes and cottages and is framed by the white pickets of

classical columns as the animals in its zoo are contained by bars. And, in the Frieze Art Fair, the park has its circus, a tent which welcomes the world of art back into the landscape it once informed.

Frieze touches the ground lightly, though. It is there and then it is gone, leaving a patch of grass briefly free of the leaves which have begun to coat the park.

Edwin Heathcote introducing the work of artist Simon Fujiwara, winner of the 2010 Frieze Cartier Award, Financial Times, 8 October 2010.

Frieze London and Frieze Masters, 5–9 October 2016 iii

iv

Nymans, Haywards Heath, West Sussex [Friday 13 May 2016]

Regents Park, London [Wednesday 27 April 2016]

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The Isabella Plantation is a 40 acre woodland ornamental garden set within a Victorian plantation in

My walk down into the Isabella usually begins at the stile into the Park on Ladderstile Ride, opposite

Richmond Park owned by the Royal Parks. It was fenced off in 1831 by Lord Sidmouth, the park deputy

Warren Road, on Kingston Hill, which takes you past herds of red and fallow deer and through a 2,500-acre

ranger, and planted with oak, beech and sweet chestnut trees and it’s this divine canopy of ancient oaks and

landscape that has changed little over the centuries and the setting for the four Golden Globe- and Oscar-

chestnuts that gives it its particular atmosphere of spiritual enchantment and beauty today. Its name most

winning classic historical drama Anne of The Thousand Days [1969] starring Richard Burton.

likely comes from the 15th century word isabelline that was given to a colour — pale, greyish yellow, pale fawn, pale cream-brown or parchment colour, and the colour of the acidic soil in this part of the park.

The garden is at its peak in Spring. From March along the path which runs through woodland up the

The soil was ideal for the acid-loving shrubs especially the lovely camellias, azaleas and magnolias that

western side of the garden you will find two of the many famous williamsii hybrid camellias: ‘Donation’

had been brought from South-East Asia in the 1920s by Ernest Wilson. This was observed by the George

and ‘Inspiration’ near the ancient pollarded oak. Nearby, the formal double white flowers, striped with red and pink, belong to Camellia japonica ‘Lavinnia Maggi’. Camellias frequently produce ‘sports’, and you may find white, red and striped flowers all on the same plant. Camellia japonica ‘Preston Rose’ also grows in this area and bears salmon-pink peony form flowers. Camellia ‘Parkside’ another williamsii hybrid bearing an abundance of large clear pink semi-double flowers grows in the Magnolia grandiflora Glade, and Camellia Japonica ‘Alba Simplex’, showing large white flowers with conspicuous yellow stamens, grows in many spots around the garden.

During March several magnolias come into flower. A fine Magnolia stellata stands near the path above Thomson’s Pond and my favourite, two younger Magnolia µ loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ can be found growing in Bluebell Walk opposite Acer Glade. This large shrub or small tree bears lilac-pink flowers that are deeper in bud. A more mature form can be found growing on the other side of Acer Glade by the Scots Pine.

Of the narcissi, the delicate dwarf Narcissus cyclamineus, native of Spain and Portugal, is the first to bloom with pendant golden flowers with narrow trumpets and upward sweeping petals, reminiscent of a cyclamen bloom. Then comes N. bulbocodium, commonly known as the ‘hooped petticoat’ due to its widely flared trumpet.

Blossoms to admire in March include the lovely Japanese ‘Fuji Cherry’, Prunus incisa, bearing small white flowers, which are pink-tinged in bud and appear pink from a distance, Clematis armandii, an evergreen clematis with creamy white flowers growing up a dead tree and the outstanding Chinese Rhododendron sutchuense which stands above the Still Pond, bearing a profusion of large bell-shaped flowers which are a rosy-lilac in colour with purple spots. Between the streams are two stunning rhododendrons grown for both their stunning flowers and bark — Rhododendron shilsonii which has loose trusses of bell shaped blood-red flowers and Rhododendron hylaeum with its pale pink flowers. R.calophytum ‘Robin Hood’ grows above these two rhododendrons, set back off the main stream path and bears large trusses of pale pink bell-shaped flowers with a maroon basal blotch.

In April the streams are bright with marsh marigolds (Caltha palustris) and the Japanese azaleas start into flower. They are usually at their best during the last week of April and the first week of May. R. racemosum,

Thompson, the park superintendent from 1951-1971 who set about creating the exquisite present garden

a medium sized shrub that bears pale to bright pink flowers, grows down the path from the Still Pond.

of ponds, streams and very delicate plantings, particularly of spring flowers. Along with his head gardener,

Rhododendron ‘Quaker Girl’ grows in the glade set back from the path at the top of Thomson’s Stream and

Wally Miller he removed Rhododendron ponticum from large areas and replaced it with large collections of

bears trusses of stunning white flowers with a deep crimson throat and Rhododendron ‘Bibiani’, a shrub

more intriguing rhododendrons and camellias, plus many other rare and exotic trees and shrubs which

producing compact trusses of rich crimson funnel shaped flowers with maroon spots, also grows in various

provide colour and variety throughout the seasons for us today. George and Wally established evergreen

parts of the garden. Early evergreen azaleas begin to flower throughout the garden in April ” look out for

Kurume azaleas around the Still Pond and created the stream that meanders through the garden. More

‘Kirin’ a pale pink ‘hose in hose’ (flower within a flower) and ‘Sylvester’ which has small deep pink flowers.

recently, in 1989, a wild stream was dug in the northern section and this has now been colonised by ferns,

In a glade set back from the Main Stream and other locations around the garden are the blue flow-

water plantains and brook lime. It is also now home to our National Collection of the ‘Wilson Fifty’ Kurume

ering rhododendrons from the triflorum series — Rhododendron augustinii and the R. chasmanthum hybrid

azaleas, all of them shrubs introduced to England by E.H. Wilson, from China and Japan in the 1920s.

Rhododendron ‘Electra’.

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Isabella Plantation, Richmond, London [Wednesday 4 May 2016]

26

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Throughout the garden the pink and white forms of Magnolia soulangiana also come into flower. Magnolia

‘Heaven Scent’ (one of the Gresham hybrids) grows off the Main Stream and has goblet-shaped flowers, pink on the outside and white inside. Its flowers have a strong lavender scent.

May is the peak flowering season for rhododendrons and azaleas — seek out the tall loderi hybrid ‘King George’, with its large soft pink flowers which are sweetly fragrant. It grows in a number places in the garden but most notably set back above the Still Pond. Follow the Small Stream down from the Still Pond to discover Rhododendron williamsiananum, a compact species with attractive bronze young shoots, distinc-

‘Gardens are about people, places and possibilities.’

Harvey Stephens, Deputy Keeper, The Savill Garden

tive heart-shaped leaves and bell-shaped, shell-pink flowers. A beautiful evergreen azalea to look out for is ‘Rosebud’ with its opening buds resembling tiny roses. ‘Palestrina’ is a white evergreen with a faint ray of green and ‘Vuyk’s Scarlet’, has large flowers of a deep silky red. Later in May Azalea pontica (Rhododendron luteum) creates fragrance as you enter the gate from the Broomfield Hill car park or by foot from the Ladderstile Ride stile.

Trees flowering in Spring include the beautiful ‘Foxglove Tree’ Paulownia tomentosa, standing in the glade between the Still Pond and Old Nursery Glade, which bears sprays of fragrant foxglove-like pinkish-lilac flowers in Spring. The ‘Pocket Handkerchief Tree’ Davidia involucrata, set back from the Camellia Walk, has intriguing white hanging bracts. Another specimen may be found in a secluded lawn to the southeast of Thomson’s Pond. The ‘Snowdrop Tree’ Halesia carolina, with dangling white bell flowers, stands by the path above Thomson’s Pond. Cornus nuttallii, whose white bracts appear like flowers, can be found set back in the newly planted Magnolia Glade near the Ham Gate entrance.

Bluebells carpet the wilder fringes of the garden throughout the Spring. I have yet to discover the Camellia japonica ‘Souvenir de Bahaud-Litou’, ‘a beautifully formed pale pink variety of with a scattering of flowers rather than a profusion’, which Robin Lane Fox mentioned in his Financial Times gardening column many springs ago. I will seek for it again next year.

The Savill Garden is the nirvana of gardens for plant lovers ensconced within Windsor Great Park and The Royal Landscape visited by garden connoisseurs from all over the world. One thousand years of Royal Patronage gives this great landscape of 4, 800 acres of sweeping parkland, gardens, lakes, deer parks, cascading waterfalls, ancient woodland, grand vistas and magnificent forest trails a particularly unique sense of tranquility. The Windsor Estate forms an important part of The Crown Estate’s £11bn real estate business, but under the Crown Estate Act 1961 the Windsor Estate is the only part of The Crown Estate’s portfolio that by law cannot be sold and is required by law to maintain its character as a Royal Park and forest.

When I make this trip I become so lost in the richness of it that it is pretty dark when I am wandering back through the ancient oaks and majestic silver-boled beeches of Windsor Valley Gardens under which the

vi

The Savill Garden, Windsor Great Park [Friday 13 May 2016]

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Plantagenet, Tudor and Stuart Kings once hunted. The silence and the ghosts of past centuries can feel almost

gardener of the 200-acre estate since 2005. Exbury Gardens is renown for its large collections of rhododen-

quite disconcerting. I would like to make it down here one morning early for bird song and early morning mists.

drons, azaleas and camellias, and is often considered the finest garden of its type in the United Kingdom.

Last April I had a beautiful walk through The Savill Garden with Harvey Stephens, Deputy Keeper of

I look forward to visiting this garden throughout all its seasons, As Peter Coats says in his book, Great Gardens

the Gardens and Head of The Savill Garden for The Crown Estate. Harvey Stephens grew up in Cornwall

of the World, ‘even in winter, a visit to the garden is rewarding, if only for sculptural grace of the trees, and the

where his parents have a garden that he names as his favourite garden in the world — they open it under

flash of crimson of the pollarded dogwood; and there is, at Windsor, an unusual garden-within-a-garden, in

the National Gardens Scheme. Harvey trained in horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew for three

which only flowers and shrubs which can be expected to flower on Christmas Day, are planted’.

years and was subsequently awarded a scholarship to work at The Jerusalem Botanical Gardens from where he was also able to travel to gardens throughout Jordan and Egypt. After that he was Head Gardener at the Moscow University Botanic Garden for three years and speaks Russian fluently. While working in Moscow he met his Russia-born wife Nadia Giliova, a gifted concert pianist. Harvey has also worked at Borde Hill gardens in West Sussex and the Eden Project.

In the late Spring sunshine it was mesmerising listening to Harvey’s tales of emails and letters from plant

collectors and garden owners all over the world and all the projects he was engaged in while discovering, cultivating and caring for these collections of great beauty. We talked about the competitiveness and the care and work involved in the delicate operation of transporting delicate plants to horticultural and flower shows. For Harvey the essence of the season had been very colourful, fast moving, dramatic, exceptionally dry and unseasonably warm.

We talked about Sir Eric Savill who had started the garden with the support of King George V and Queen Mary in 1932 when he was the deputy ranger of Windsor Great Park although the garden was mainly developed after the war in the 1950s. It was George VI who had the garden named after Sir Eric, who was knighted in 1955. Harvey spoke about his then boss, the late Mark Flanaghan’s trip to Japan with Tony Kirkham, head of the Arboretum at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. They were following in the footsteps of Ernest Wilson, the great English plant hunter who did so much to bring the diversity of both Japanese and Chinese flora to western gardens. After the disastrous destruction of the great storms of 1987 Mark Flanaghan and Tony Kirkham, curators at Wakehurst Place and Kew respectively, had travelled to South Korea, Taiwan, the Russian Far East, Japan and China on plant collecting expeditions to source new specimens to rejuvenate the collections.

On a trip to Sichuan in 2001 it was his encyclopædic knowledge of the gardening literature that led Mark to realise that a (by then dead) huge old Cunninghamia was the same tree as that photographed by Wilson in 1908.

This extraordinary revelation sparked a further series of travels in which the two attempted to find locations visited by Wilson, and where possible, take a photograph from the same spot. Although much has changed in China, much remains, and the comparative images, published together in their book Wilson’s China (Kew Publishing, 2009), are incredible. In many cases the same trees are easily recognisable, even when they are just components of the landscape, not to mention the set piece images of magnificent veterans.

Tragically Mark Flanaghan passed away last October (2015) after suffering an unforeseen heart attack in September that he never recovered from. Before he died, on hearing of his sudden and short illness, Mark was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) at his hospital bedside and posthumously

‘Do all the work you can. That is the whole philosophy of the good way of life.’

Eugène Delacroix

awarded the highest accolade in horticulture, the Royal Horticultural Society’s Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH).

This Spring The Crown Estate appointed John Anderson to the role of Keeper of the Gardens. Anderson

comes to the role from Exbury Gardens, within the New Forest National Park where he has been head vii

Hyde Park Rose Garden, London [Monday 6 June 2016]

30

‘That feeling of stirring, dynamic, constantly changing reality.’

I M P R ESS I ONS It is almost hard to imagine what a despair and sense of helplessness faced the intelligentsia in Paris in 1871.

The Commune ends with a more complete defeat for the rebels than in any previous revolution but is the first to be sustained by an international labour movement. Despite their victory the bourgeoisie experience a sense of acute danger and everywhere there is a mood of crisis in the air.

Industrialisation, financial capital and technical developments were all proceeding along as planned — the crisis itself must rather be seen as an incentive to new technical achievements and improvements of methods of production. Certain signs of the atmosphere of crisis make themselves felt in all the manifestations of technical activity. It is above all the furious speed of the development and the way the pace is forced that seems pathological, particularly when compared with the rate of progress in earlier periods of the history of art and culture. For the rapid development of technology not only accelerates the change of fashion, but also the shifting emphases in the criteria of æsthetic taste; it often brings about a senseless and fruitless mania for innovation, a restless striving for the new for the mere sake of novelty.

Industrialists are compelled to intensify the demand for improved products by artificial means and must not allow the feeling that the new is always better to cool down, if they really want to profit from the achievements of technology. The continual and increasingly rapid replacement of old articles in everyday use by new ones leads, however, to a diminished affection for material and soon also for intellectual

31

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{

M USI C

}

possessions, too, and readjusts the speed in which philosophical and artistic revaluations occur to that of changing fashion. Modern technology thus introduces an unprecedented dynamism in the whole attitude to life and it is above all this new feeling of speed and change that finds expression in Impressionism.

Mars · March · März

Avril · April

c h a n t d e l’a l o u e t t e [ Song of the L ark ]

perc e -n e i g e [ s now d r o p]

the quivering, trembling dots and the hasty, loose and abrupt strokes of the brush, the whole improvised

‘The field shimmering with flowers,

‘The blue, pure snowdrop — flower,

technique with its rapid and rough sketching, the fleeting, seemingly careless perception of the object and

the stars swirling in the heavens,

and near it the last snowdrops.

the brilliant casualness of the execution merely express, in the final analysis, that feeling of stirring, dynamic,

the song of the lark

The last tears over past griefs,

constantly changing reality, which begun with the re-orientation of painting by the use of perspective.

fills the blue abyss.’

and first dreams of another happiness.’

The reproduction of the subjective act instead of the objective substratum of seeing, with which the history

of modern perspective begins, here achieves its culmination. The representation of light, air and atmosphere, the dissolution of the evenly coloured surface into spots and dabs of colour, the decomposition of the local colour into ‘valeurs’, into values of perspective and aspect, the play of reflected light and illuminated shadows,

Impressionism was the last step in a process of increasing obscurity that had been going on for centuries

·

but Impressionism was a more daring leap than any single phase of the earlier development, and the shock

Apollon Maykov

produced by the first impressionist exhibitions was comparable to nothing ever experienced before in the

1821–97

whole history of artistic innovation. People considered the rapid execution and the shapelessness of the pictures as an insolent provocation; they thought they were being made fun of it and the revenge they took was as cruel as they were able to contrive.

From the late 1860s the Impressionists — Monet and other like-minded artists met with rejection from the Académie des Beaux-Arts, which held its annual exhibition at the Salon de Paris. In the spring of 1871, Monet's works were also refused authorisation for inclusion in the Royal Academy exhibition.

During the latter part of 1873, Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley organised the Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs [Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors,

SEASO NS

and Engravers] to exhibit their artworks independently. At their first exhibition, held in April 1874, Monet exhibited the work Impression, Sunrise, painted in 1872, depicting a Le Havre port landscape that was to give

Mai · May

the group its lasting name. From the painting’s title the art critic Louis Leroy, in his review, ‘L’Exposition des Impressionnistes’, which appeared in Le Charivari, coined the term ‘Impressionism’. It was intended as disparagement but the Impressionists appropriated the term for themselves.

Impressionism as a collective movement begins now. However, Delacroix — who discovered the law of complementary colours and the coloration of shadows (Monet read Delacroix’s notebooks vociferously and throughout his whole life) — and Constable — who established the complex composition of colour effects in nature — already anticipate much of the Impressionist method.

The rise of Impressionism as a movement is above all the artistic expression to the city — the beginnings of which are found in Manet — and its amalgamation in response to the vitriolic abuse and opposition of the public. The impressionist experience of the city expresses their opposition to the bourgeois view of life, its monotonous routine, ordered security and its disciplined practice. Although they themselves are not always aware of it, theirs is the art of an opposition, like that of all progressive tendencies from the Romantics, and the

les n u i ts de m ai ( starli t n i g hts )

‘What a night!

What bliss all about!

I thank my native north country!

From the kingdom of ice, snowstorms and snow, how fresh and clean May flies in!’

Afanasy Fet 1820–92

rebelliousness latent in the impressionist approach to life, is why the bourgeois public rejected this new art.

While the impressionists might not have made it easy for the public to understand their art, appreciation

The Seasons, Op. 37a, is a set of twelve short character pieces for solo piano composed in 1875–6 by

of art was in a bad way when such great, peaceable, and honest artists as Monet, Renoir and Pissarro were

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. They were commissioned by Nikolay Matveyevich Bernard, editor of the

allowed to starve.

St. Petersburg music magazine Nouvellist, where they were subsequently published, month by month.

from

Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, Vol. 2, translated in collaboration with the author by Stanley Godman, Routledge and Kegan Paul [1951],

The epigraphs translated and reproduced above were chosen by Bernard.

{

BO O K

35

}

designer himself, who confirmed that the images brought to London by Ripa offered some visual hints of the natural appearance of the gardens of China.

They also offered a term of comparison for the first gardens designed in the English landscape garden style. In 1751, Spence reported that ‘in the 36 prints of a vast garden belonging to the present Emperor of from Bianca

Maria Rinaldi, Ideas of Chinese Gardens: Western Accounts, 1300–1860,

(Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture), University of Pennsylvania Press, [2015]

China: there is not one regular walk of trees in the whole round, they seem to exceed our late best natural designers in the natural taste’. Yet those views, even if relatively accurate, gave only a partial image of the great imperial park. They depicted the main architectural complexities in the gardens, and these were shown as emerging from singularly natural settings: the buildings were surrounded by hills overlooking irregular lakes, placed amidst valleys or raised at the top of high mountains. Ripa’s views framed only

The first reliable graphic representation of a Chinese Garden to reach Europe was the collection of views

segments of landscape, without any general panoramas or plans able to offer an overall unitary sense of the

that the Neapolitan missionary Matteo Ripa [1682–1746] brought back from China in 1724. In 1713, Ripa

different scenes.

who had arrived in Beijing in 1711, had been entrusted by the Kangxi emperor [r. 1661–1722] with the task

Nonetheless, these images awakened great curiosity, to the point that eighteen of the views were re-en-

of executing a series of copper engravings, the first ever done in China, depicting thirty-six views of the

graved and published in London in 1753. The new images considerably altered the views produced by Ripa

vast imperial summer residence of the Bishu Shanazhuang (Mountain Estate for Escaping the Summer

in order to adapt them to European taste. Fantastic animals were inserted into the scenes along with human

Heat), built not longer before in modern Chengde, in northern China. During his return voyage to Italy

figures and shadows that extended the space represented in the drawings, which, conceived in accordance

Ripa stopped in London, bringing with him some copies of his album of views of Kangxi’s park in Chengde.

with the Chinese canon, lacked spatial depth in Western eyes. The views of the imperial park in Chengde,

On that occasion, those images were seen and some perhaps sold, giving Ripa’s engravings some visi-

executed in China under Ripa’s direction, remained for several decades the sole concrete images in the

bility among local artists and intellectuals. Among them was Joseph Spence, a poet, historian, and garden

various versions) of a great Chinese garden in circulation within Europe.

36

The gardens I was in China were very small; nevertheless from them, and what could be gathered from

37

sudden transitions, and a striking opposition of

and sometimes, by an artful disposition, such as

Lepqua, a celebrated Chinese painter, with whom I had several conventions on the subject of gardening,

forms, colours, and shades. Thus they conduct

have no resemblance to each other. In their large

IÂ think I have acquired sufficient knowledge of their notions on this head.

you from limited prospect to extensive views;

gardens they contrive different scenes for morning,

Nature is their pattern, and their aim is to imitate her in all her beautiful irregularities. Their first confed-

from objects of horror to scenes of delight; from

noon, and evening; erecting, at the proper points

eration is the form of the ground, whether it be flat, sloping, hilly, or mountainous, extensive, or of small

lakes and rivers to plains, hills, and woods; to

of view, buildings adapted to the recreations of

compass, of a dry or marshy nature, abounding with rivers and springs, or liable to a scarcity of water; to all

dark and gloomy colours they oppose such as

each particular time of the day: and in their small

which circumstances they attend with great care, choosing such dispositions as humour the ground, can be

are brilliant, and to complicated forms simple

ones (where, as has been observed, one arrange-

executed with the least expense, hide it’s defects, and set its advantages in the most conspicuous light.

ones; distributing, by a judicious arrangement,

ment produces many representations) they dispose

the different masses of light and shade, in such

in the same manner, at the several points of view,

As the Chinese are not fond of walking, we seldom meet with avenues or Ipacious walks, as in our European plantations: the whole ground is laid out in a variety of scenes, and you are led, by winding passages cut in’ the groves, to the different points of view, each of which is marked by a feat a building, or some other object.

The perfection of their gardens consists in the number, beauty, and diversity of these scenes. The Chinese gardeners, like the European painters, collect from nature the most pleasing objects, which they endeavor to combine in such a manner, as not only to appear to the best advantage separately, but also likewise to unite in forming an elegant and striking whole.

I N

C H I NA

Their artists distinguish three different species of scenes, to which they give the appellations of pleasing, horrid, and enchanted. Their enchanted scenes answer, in a great measure, to what we call the romantic, and in these they make use of several artifices to excite surprise. Sometimes they make a rapid stream, or torrent, pass under ground, the turbulent noise of which strikes the ear of the newcomer, who is at a loss to know from whence it proceeds: at other times they dispose the rocks, buildings, and other objects that form the competition, in such a manner as that the wind palling through the different interstices and cavities, made in them for that purpose, causes strange and un common sounds. They introduce into these scenes all kinds of extraordinary trees, plants, and flowers, form artificial and complicated echoes, and let loose different forts of monstrous birds and animals.

a manner as to render the composition at once

buildings, which, from their which, from their use,

In their scenes of horror, they introduce impending rocks, dark caverns, and impetuous cataracts

sifting in its parts, and striking in the whole.

point out the time of day for enjoying the scene in

rushing down the mountains from all sides; the trees are ill-formed, and seemingly torn to pieces by

Where the ground is extensive, and a multi-

its perfection.

the violence of tempests; some are thrown down, and intercept the course of the torrents, appearing as

plicity of scenes are to be introduced, they gener-

if they had been brought down by the fury of the waters; others look as if mattered and blasted by the

ally adapt each to one single point of view: but

As the climate of China is exceeding hot, they

force of lightning; the buildings are some in ruins, others half consumed by fire, and some miserable huts

where it is limited, and affords no room for variety,

employ a great deal of water in their gardens.

dispersed in the mountains serve, at once to indicate the existence and wretchedness of the inhabitants.

they endeavor to remedy this defeat, by disposing

In the small ones, if the situation admits, they

Pleasing ones generally succeeds these scenes.

the objects so, that being viewed from different

frequently lay almost the whole ground under

The Chinese artists, knowing how powerfully contrast operates on the mind, constantly practice

points, they produce different representations;

water; leaving only some islands and rocks: and

from

William Chambers, Designs of Chinese buildings, furniture, dresses, machines, and utensils: to which is annexed a description of their temples, houses, gardens, London [1757]

38

39

in their large ones they introduce extensive lakes,

The stone they are made of comes from the

i n t e r s p e r s i n g a m o n g t h e m s u c h a s p ro d u c e

by introducing buildings, appearing in the front or

rivers, and canals. The banks of their lakes and

southern coasts of China. It has a bluish cast, and

flowers; of which they have some that flourish a

foreground, and by these means rendering what in

rivers are variegated in imitation of nature; being

is worn into irregular forms by the action of the

great part of the year. The Weeping- willow is one

reality is trifling and limited, great and consider-

sometimes bare and gravelly, sometimes covered

waves. The Chinese are exceeding nice in the

of their favourite trees, and always among those

able in appearance.

with woods quite to the water's edge. In some

choice of this stone; insomuch that I have seen

that border their lakes and rivers, being so planted

places flat, and adorned with flowers and shrubs,

several Tael given for a bit no bigger than a man's

as to have its branches hanging over the water.

The Chinese generally avoid straight lines; yet they

in others steep, rocky, and forming caverns, into

fist, when it happened to be of a beautiful form

They likewise introduce trunks of decayed trees,

do not absolutely reject them. They sometimes

which part of the waters discharge themselves

and lively colour. But these select pieces they use

sometimes ere&, and at other times lying on the

make avenues, when they have any interesting

with noise and violence. Sometimes you see

in landscapes for their apartments: in gardens

ground, being very nice about their forms, and the

object to expose to view. Roads they always make

meadows covered with cattle, or rice-grounds

they employ a coarser sort, which they join with

colour of the bark and moss on them.

straight unless the unevenness of the ground, or doing otherwise. Where the ground is entirely

that run out into the lakes, leaving between them

bluish cement, and form rocks of a considerable

passages for vessels; and sometimes groves, into

size. I have seen some of these exquisitely fine, and

Various are the artifices they employ to surprise.

other impediments, afford at least a pretext for

which enter, in different parts, creeks and rivulets,

such as discovered an uncommon elegance of taste

Sometimes they lead you through dark caverns

level, they look upon it as an absurdity to make a

sufficiently deep to admit boats; their banks being

in the contriver. When they are large they make

and gloomy passages, at the issue of which you

serpentine road: for they say that it must either be

planted with trees, whose spreading branches,

in them caves and grottos, with openings, through

are, on a sudden, struck with the view of a deli-

made by art, or worn by the constant passage of

in some places, form arbors, under which the

which you discover distant prospects, They cover

cious landscape, enriched with every

thing that

travellers; in either of which cafes it is not natural

boats pass. They generally conduct to some very

them, in different places, with trees, shrubs, briars,

luxuriant nature affords most beautiful. At other

to suppose men would choose a crooked line when

interesting object, such as a magnificent building,

and moss; placing on their tops little temples, or

times you are conduced through avenues and

they might go by a straight one.

places on the top of a mountain cut into terraces;

other buildings, to which you ascend by rugged

walks, that gradually diminish and grow rugged,

a casine situated in the midst of a lake; a cascade;

and irregular steps cut in the rock.

till the passage is at length entirely intercepted,

What we call clumps, the Chinese gardeners are

a grotto cut into a variety of apartments; an artifi-

When there is a sufficient supply of water, and

and rendered impracticable, by bullies, briars, and

not unacquainted with; but they use them some-

cial rock; and many other such inventions.

proper ground, the Chinese never fail to form

stones: when unexpectedly a rich and extensive

what more sparingly than we do. They never

Their rivers are seldom straight, but serpentine,

cascades in their gardens. They avoid all regu-

prospect opens to view, so much the more pleasing

fill a whole piece of ground with clumps: they

and broken into many irregular points; sometimes

larity in their works, observing nature according

as it was less looked for.

consider a plantation as painters do a picture,

they are narrow, noisy, and rapid, at other times

to her operations in that mountainous country.

Another of their artifices is to hide some part

and group their trees in the same manner as

deep, broad, and flow. Both in their rivers and

The waters burst out from among the caverns, and

of a composition by trees, or other intermediate

these do their figures, having their principal and

lakes are seen reeds, with other aquatic plants and

windings of the rocks. In some places a large and

objects. This naturally excites the curiosity of

subservient mules.

flowers, particularly the Lyen Hoa (lian hua) of

impetuous cataract appears; in others are seen

the spectator to take a nearer view; when he is

which they are very fond. They frequently erect

many lealer falls. Trees, whose leaves, intercept

surprised by some unexpected scene, or some

This is the substance of what I learnt during my

mills, and other hydraulic machines, the motions

sometimes the view of the cascade and branches

representation totally opposite to the thing he

stay in China, partly from my own observation,

of which enliven the scene: they have also a great

only leave room to discover the waters, in some

looked for. The termination of their lakes they

but chiefly from the lessons of Lepqua: and from

number of vessels of different forms and sizes. In

places, as they fall down the fides of the moun-

always hide, leaving room for the imagination

what has been said it may be inferred, that the art

their lakes they intersperse islands; some of them

tain. They frequently throw rough wooden bridges

to work and the same rule they observe in other

of laying out grounds, after the Chinese manner,

barren, and surrounded with rocks and shoals,

from one rock to another, over the steepest part

compositions, wherever it can be put in practice.

is exceedingly difficult, and not to be attained

others enriched with

precepts are simple and obvious, yet the putting

every thing that art and

of the cataract; and often intercept it’s passage by

nature can furnish most perfect. They likewise

trees and heaps of stones, that seem to have been

Though the Chinese are not well versed in optics,

form artificial rocks; and in compositions of this

brought down by the violence of the torrent.

yet experience has taught them that objects appear

them in execution requires genius, judgment, and

less in size, and grow dim in colour, in propor-

experience, a strong imagination, and a thorough

kind the Chinese surpass all other nations. The

by persons of narrow intellects. For though the

making them is a distinct profession; and there

In their plantations they vary the forms and

tion as they are more removed from the eye of

knowledge of the human mind. This method being

are at Canton, and probably in most other cities of

colours of their trees; mixing such as have large

the spectator. These discoveries have given life

fixed to no certain rule, but liable to as many vari-

China, numbers of artificers constantly employed

and spreading branches, with those of pyram-

to an artifice, which they sometimes put in prac-

ations, as there are different arrangements in the

in this business.

idal figures, and dark greens, with brighter,

tice. It is the forming of prospects in perspective,

work of the creation.

quoted in

Bianca Maria Rinaldi, Ideas of Chinese Gardens: Western Accounts, 1300–1860,

(Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture), University of Pennsylvania Press, [2015]

{

c o c ktail

}

41

fleurissim o

1 white sugar cube 5 dashes of Peychaud’s bitter 5ml violet liqueur 15 ml Rémy Martin VSOP cognac Champagne, to top up Soak the sugar cube with Peychaud’s bitter Gently drop into the Champagne coupe filled with rest of the ingredients Top up with Champagne and garnish with rose petals

E S S ENC E

‘Everything, it is said, has an Essence; that is, things really are not what they immediately show themselves.

There is therefore something more to be done than merely rove from one quality to another, and merely to advance from qualitative to quantitative, and vice versa : there is a permanent in things, and that permanent is in the first instance their Essence. (…) Still it should be remembered that the only means by which the Essence and the inner self can be verified, is their appearance in outward reality.’.

cocktail created by Agostino Perrone, Director of Mixology, Connaught Bar, London for the Masterpieces Menu — a selection of legendary cocktails for which the bar is renowned; famous recipes re-inspired and creatively reinvented text from

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Logic of Hegel,

translated by William Wallace, Forgotten Books [2012], originally published 1892

Chris Ofili, Midnight Cocktail [2015], oil on linen, 310 × 200 × 4 cm © Chris Ofili, courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London

42

Abu Ward: This is hazelnut, at the start of its life Hazelnut This is loquat This is a pear tree My place here is worth billions of dollars!

I own the world!

We ordinary people own the whole world!

(The sound of war) is like Beethoven’s music We have become accustomed to this music: without it we couldn’t manage!

So we think of it as music now This one was hit by shrapnel from a barrel bomb But it is still alive, thanks to God This tree will live and we will live, despite everything This one is an evergreen!

This flower is finished now, but the new one can now start to grow Flowers help the world, and there is no greater beauty than flowers Those who see flowers enjoy the beauty of the world, created by God And when you smell them they nourish the heart and the soul The essence of the world is a flower

Abu Ward (which means ‘Father of the Flowers’) ran Aleppo’s last remaining garden centre and was interviewed and filmed in April 2016

by Waad al-Kateab for Inside Aleppo: the tale of the flower-seller, Channel 4 News.

right

Claude Monet, Water Lilies (Agapanthus) [c.1915–26], oil on canvas, 200 × 426 cm, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 57-26, photograph: Louis Meluso back cover

Claude Monet, Water Lilies [c.1916–26], oil on canvas, 200 × 426 cm, Saint Louis Art Museum, The Steinberg Charitable Fund 134:1956