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Lot Essay
This view of Richmond is one of the finest and largest early panoramas to be painted in England. It is also an important record in the history of the development of Richmond.
Leonard Knyff was born in Haarlem, the son of Wouter Knyff, and the younger brother of Jacob Knyff (1639-1681), who was also a gifted painter of topographical landscapes. Both brothers were trained by their father in Haarlem but subsequently settled in England, Jacob in 1673, and Leonard sometime after 1676. Little is known of Leonard Knyff's early career for no documented painting survives before 1697, but he seems initially to have specialised in paintings of still lives and later to have concentrated more on topogaphical views. Vertue records that he was 'a painter [of] chiefly fowls and dogs &c' but commented that 'The most remarkable of his works [were] the views drawn and painted by him of the Palaces and noblemen's houses and seats' (Vertue, Notebooks, 'Walpole Society', XVIII, 1930, pp. 117-118). By 1697 Knyff had embarked on an ambitious project to draw and engrave views of country houses together with Johannes Kip (d.1722), and by the end of 1702 he claimed to have finished sixty-nine such drawings intended for engraving. Although not perhaps the original intention of the project, the engravings were eventually to form the basis of a monumental book entitled Britania Illustrata, containing eighty plates, which first appeared in 1707, through which Knyff's work is best known.
This picture is a rare example of Knyff's work in oil. As Harris comments, while 'the popular imagination might conjure up as many oil paintings as there are engraved views, this is not so'. Indeed, despite the popularity of Knyff's engraved views, Harris notes that his 'inability to dominate the market for oil painted views is proven by the large number of houses already engraved by him but painted by others'. Apart from this view and its companion, Harris accepts only seven or eight country house views as by him, to set against the sixty-three houses he had engraved by 1710 (Harris, p. 94).
The view is taken from the side of Richmond Hill looking south-west 'up' the River Thames. To the left of the composition above Richmond Hill Common (now Terrace Field) are the Terrace Walk, with its double row of pollarded trees, laid out circa 1700, and, from the left, the Roebuck Tavern, and numbers one, two, and three The Terrace, which were built by Michael Pew between 1696 and 1700. Slightly beyond the windmill, to the left of the park gate, are two houses which were replaced in 1772 by Ancaster House. At the bottom of the hill lies New Park (see fig 4.), with its two detached wings, the country seat of the celebrated courtier and Lord High Treasurer, Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester (1641-1711), which had been built by Matthew Banckes in 1692-93, beyond which Kingston Church and Bridge can just be glimpsed in the far distance. New Park was destroyed by fire in 1721, and subsequently replaced by Petersham Lodge, which was in turn demolished in 1835. The two small houses immediately to the right of it seem likely to be the predecessors of Bute House (built in 1805 and demolished in 1895) and Reston Lodge (rebuilt in the early 19th century). To the right are Petersham Church and Petersham House, the latter built by Thomas Panton in the late seventeenth Century, and, slightly beyond them, what would appear to be Sir Thomas Jenner's house, built sometime between 1682 and 1707, which was subsequently enlarged into the present Montrose House. Nearby are houses which would appear to be consistent with Rutland Lodge and Douglas House, while closer to the river are a few houses in River Lane, the larger most probably representing the predecessor of the house now called Petersham Lodge. Ham House, which had been built in 1610, and was owned in 1720 by Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Earl of Dysart, can be seen in the distance near the bend in the river. Across the river, in the far distance, is Hampton Court Palace; in the middle distance, off Eel Pie island, is the villa which was leased to Alexander Pope in 1718 and remodelled by James Gibbs in 1719, the town of Twickenham, Orleans House, which had been built by John James for Secretary James Johnson, in 1710, and, in the foreground, Little Marble Hill.
Knyff also painted a view of Richmond looking West, over The Terrace, towards Isleworth (fig......; Ionides Collection, Richmond-on-Thames). The two were presumably intended as companions although they are not a matched pair, the Ionides view being smaller. Comparison with an
earlier view by Jan Siberechts' which is taken from nearly the same
viewpoint, executed in 1677 (fig....), shows the extent of the rise in popularity of Richmond as a fashionable place to live and the
consequent development which took place in the later years of the
seventeenth century and early years of the eighteenth century.
Siberechts' view shows the area before the building of New Park, at a
time when the Thames had not yet been properly embanked, as the
extensive flooding makes clear. Another view from Richmond Hill, with New Park, attributed to Adriaen Van Diest, and dated to circa 1700, is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, Yale ( Harris, no. 154, colour pl. XI). While John Harris (op.cit.) has dated this picture to circa 1702, John Cloake has suggested a later date, perhaps as late as 1720, on the basis of the buildings shown in the composition. A drawing of the present view by Knyff (8 x 30 in.) in a private collection (fig....) is presumably a sketch for this composition (fig......; L. Herman, British Landscape Painting of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1973, p. 16 and pl. 2(c)). Knyff also executed a drawing of Lord Rochester's New Park, circa 1698-1702, which was engraved by Kip and included in Britannia Illustrata (fig......), and John Harris has suggested that Lord Rochester may have commissioned this view, in which his own newly built house is such a central feature. Stylistically it can be compared with Knyff's celebrated views of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, commissioned by Lord Coningsby, one of which is dated 1699 (Harris, op.cit., pls. 115 (a) and (b); Yale center for British Art), and to his view of Hampton Court Palace, of circa 1702, which was also in the collection of Lord Coningsby (Harris, pl. 117).
Leonard Knyff was born in Haarlem, the son of Wouter Knyff, and the younger brother of Jacob Knyff (1639-1681), who was also a gifted painter of topographical landscapes. Both brothers were trained by their father in Haarlem but subsequently settled in England, Jacob in 1673, and Leonard sometime after 1676. Little is known of Leonard Knyff's early career for no documented painting survives before 1697, but he seems initially to have specialised in paintings of still lives and later to have concentrated more on topogaphical views. Vertue records that he was 'a painter [of] chiefly fowls and dogs &c' but commented that 'The most remarkable of his works [were] the views drawn and painted by him of the Palaces and noblemen's houses and seats' (Vertue, Notebooks, 'Walpole Society', XVIII, 1930, pp. 117-118). By 1697 Knyff had embarked on an ambitious project to draw and engrave views of country houses together with Johannes Kip (d.1722), and by the end of 1702 he claimed to have finished sixty-nine such drawings intended for engraving. Although not perhaps the original intention of the project, the engravings were eventually to form the basis of a monumental book entitled Britania Illustrata, containing eighty plates, which first appeared in 1707, through which Knyff's work is best known.
This picture is a rare example of Knyff's work in oil. As Harris comments, while 'the popular imagination might conjure up as many oil paintings as there are engraved views, this is not so'. Indeed, despite the popularity of Knyff's engraved views, Harris notes that his 'inability to dominate the market for oil painted views is proven by the large number of houses already engraved by him but painted by others'. Apart from this view and its companion, Harris accepts only seven or eight country house views as by him, to set against the sixty-three houses he had engraved by 1710 (Harris, p. 94).
The view is taken from the side of Richmond Hill looking south-west 'up' the River Thames. To the left of the composition above Richmond Hill Common (now Terrace Field) are the Terrace Walk, with its double row of pollarded trees, laid out circa 1700, and, from the left, the Roebuck Tavern, and numbers one, two, and three The Terrace, which were built by Michael Pew between 1696 and 1700. Slightly beyond the windmill, to the left of the park gate, are two houses which were replaced in 1772 by Ancaster House. At the bottom of the hill lies New Park (see fig 4.), with its two detached wings, the country seat of the celebrated courtier and Lord High Treasurer, Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester (1641-1711), which had been built by Matthew Banckes in 1692-93, beyond which Kingston Church and Bridge can just be glimpsed in the far distance. New Park was destroyed by fire in 1721, and subsequently replaced by Petersham Lodge, which was in turn demolished in 1835. The two small houses immediately to the right of it seem likely to be the predecessors of Bute House (built in 1805 and demolished in 1895) and Reston Lodge (rebuilt in the early 19th century). To the right are Petersham Church and Petersham House, the latter built by Thomas Panton in the late seventeenth Century, and, slightly beyond them, what would appear to be Sir Thomas Jenner's house, built sometime between 1682 and 1707, which was subsequently enlarged into the present Montrose House. Nearby are houses which would appear to be consistent with Rutland Lodge and Douglas House, while closer to the river are a few houses in River Lane, the larger most probably representing the predecessor of the house now called Petersham Lodge. Ham House, which had been built in 1610, and was owned in 1720 by Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Earl of Dysart, can be seen in the distance near the bend in the river. Across the river, in the far distance, is Hampton Court Palace; in the middle distance, off Eel Pie island, is the villa which was leased to Alexander Pope in 1718 and remodelled by James Gibbs in 1719, the town of Twickenham, Orleans House, which had been built by John James for Secretary James Johnson, in 1710, and, in the foreground, Little Marble Hill.
Knyff also painted a view of Richmond looking West, over The Terrace, towards Isleworth (fig......; Ionides Collection, Richmond-on-Thames). The two were presumably intended as companions although they are not a matched pair, the Ionides view being smaller. Comparison with an
earlier view by Jan Siberechts' which is taken from nearly the same
viewpoint, executed in 1677 (fig....), shows the extent of the rise in popularity of Richmond as a fashionable place to live and the
consequent development which took place in the later years of the
seventeenth century and early years of the eighteenth century.
Siberechts' view shows the area before the building of New Park, at a
time when the Thames had not yet been properly embanked, as the
extensive flooding makes clear. Another view from Richmond Hill, with New Park, attributed to Adriaen Van Diest, and dated to circa 1700, is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, Yale ( Harris, no. 154, colour pl. XI). While John Harris (op.cit.) has dated this picture to circa 1702, John Cloake has suggested a later date, perhaps as late as 1720, on the basis of the buildings shown in the composition. A drawing of the present view by Knyff (8 x 30 in.) in a private collection (fig....) is presumably a sketch for this composition (fig......; L. Herman, British Landscape Painting of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1973, p. 16 and pl. 2(c)). Knyff also executed a drawing of Lord Rochester's New Park, circa 1698-1702, which was engraved by Kip and included in Britannia Illustrata (fig......), and John Harris has suggested that Lord Rochester may have commissioned this view, in which his own newly built house is such a central feature. Stylistically it can be compared with Knyff's celebrated views of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, commissioned by Lord Coningsby, one of which is dated 1699 (Harris, op.cit., pls. 115 (a) and (b); Yale center for British Art), and to his view of Hampton Court Palace, of circa 1702, which was also in the collection of Lord Coningsby (Harris, pl. 117).