When it came to landscapes, the photographs reflected the picturesque tastes of the age in fine art and the growing antiquarian interest in documenting and appreciating the past, including ancient buildings and monuments and a countryside untainted by the intrusion of modernity. Benjamin Brecknell Turner’s carefully framed large-format images embodied the approach, with Hedgerow Trees, Clerkenleap, and Worcestershire (1852–54), being an outstanding example.
Turner’s photos are notably English in the intimacy of their settings. Unlike the sublime photographs of untraversed open spaces and enormous geological features produced by the great American landscape photographers such as Carleton E. Watkins and William Henry Jackson a decade or so later, Hedgerow Trees offers no elevated viewpoint and lacks a backdrop. This is the everyday countryside—cosy and familiar.
Tellingly, when Turner contributed another of his images for inclusion in The Photographic Album for the Year 1855, assembled by the Photographic Exchange Club, he chose to support it with a few lines from The Sketch Book by Geoffrey Crayon (pseudonym of the American writer Washington Irving): ‘England does not abound in grand and sublime prospects, but rather in little home scenes of rural repose and sheltered quiet. Every antique farmhouse and the moss-grown cottage is a picture.’
Denne historien er fra June 29, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra June 29, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
