View of Chatsworth House from the South-West, with labourers and livestock in the foreground

This view of Chatsworth, Derbyshire, is taken from the south-west and shows the south and west fronts of the house. The south front was rebuilt by William Talman for William, 4th Earl of Devonshire, later 1st Duke of Devonshire (from 1687). The West front was also rebuilt in the same massive and dignified manner as the south front. It is not however known who designed it; it may be the work of Thomas Archer but also seems to display the influence of Talman's genius, and perhaps that of Sir John Vanburgh, who is recorded as having stayed with the Duke for four or five days in 1699. Beyond the house the magnificent stable block, built by James Paine between 1758 and 1763, can also be seen. The old stables that appear to the south-west of the house in an earlier view by Thomas Smith of circa 1743 (J. Harris, The Artist and the Country House, London, 1979, p.268, pl. 288) which were swept away when James Paine was commissioned to build a new stable block to the north-east of house in 1756, are absent from this composition.

This view was one of a notable collection of pictures sold in these rooms by Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Heywood-Lonsdale in 1958. Shavington, Moreton Say, Shropshire, which was built for the 6th Viscount Kilmorey in 1685 and was the grandest house of its date in Shropshire, was demolished in 1959.