Sunbury offered us a different insight into Martin’s work, and we see him using the style of landscape painting, painted directly onto plasterwork rather than capricci paper or canvas. This style of painting allowed Martin to use his imagination to incorporate scenes from the Grand Tour (though he never undertook a Grand Tour himself), so that guests of Marie Delegard and George Fermor, no doubt in fancy dress, would feel themselves to be in another country as they sat down to dinner. Figure 4.27. Sir Francis Dashwood, Figure 4.28. Detail from wall painting, illustrating dressed as the Turk figures in oriental dress The fashion for fancy dress balls was very popular during the late eighteenth century, as can be seen from (figure 4.27) where we see Sir Francis Dashwood, 2nd Bt who has had himself painted wearing a costume of the Grand Turk. Sir Francis Dashwood became infamous for holding lavish parties in the caves at West Wycombe Park, which had a reputation for Bacchic excess, with Dashwood acting as ringleader and master of ceremonies. The four over in the dining room, illustrating the transition from good to evil, support the notion that sometimes the numerous society dinners and celebrations that were prevalent in the eighteenth century ended in drunken debauchery. Martin had been given much more latitude in the conception of the paintings at Sunbury and embraced the opportunity, exploring a style of landscape that would be considered to be unconventional at that time. Martin had explored this concept of before in capricci a number of preliminary sketches, possibly for the commission at Sunbury. 4.6.4. Painshill Park It is not surprising that we see that, in 1770, Martin had visited Painshill Park, as his love of nature and the natural environment would have drawn him there. Whether he was pleased or disappointed in what he saw we do not know; for Martin, the landscape should have evolved and been shaped by time, not by the hand of a landscape designer. The images we are left with from his visit revolve around the grotto and a view of the Temple of Bacchus. The earliest grottoes were shrines, both built and natural caves at the sites of sacred springs in ancient Greece, to honour the
Sunbury offered us a different insight into Martin’s work, and we see him using the capricci style of landscape painting, painted directly onto plasterwork rather than paper or canvas. This style of painting allowed Martin to use his imagination to incorporate scenes from the Grand Tour (though he never undertook a Grand Tour himself), so that guests of Marie Delegard and George Fermor, no doubt in fancy dress, would feel themselves to be in another country as they sat down to dinner. Figure 4.27. Sir Francis Dashwood, Figure 4.28. Detail from wall painting, illustrating dressed as the Turk figures in oriental dress The fashion for fancy dress balls was very popular during the late eighteenth century, as can be seen from (figure 4.27) where we see Sir Francis Dashwood, 2nd Bt who has had himself painted wearing a costume of the Grand Turk. Sir Francis Dashwood became infamous for holding lavish parties in the caves at West Wycombe Park, which had a reputation for Bacchic excess, with Dashwood acting as ringleader and master of ceremonies. The four over in the dining room, illustrating the transition from good to evil, support the notion that sometimes the numerous society dinners and celebrations that were prevalent in the eighteenth century ended in drunken debauchery. Martin had been given much more latitude in the conception of the paintings at Sunbury and embraced the opportunity, exploring a style of landscape that would be considered to be unconventional at that time. Martin had explored this concept of capricci before in a number of preliminary sketches, possibly for the commission at Sunbury. 4.6.4. Painshill Park It is not surprising that we see that, in 1770, Martin had visited Painshill Park, as his love of nature and the natural environment would have drawn him there. Whether he was pleased or disappointed in what he saw we do not know; for Martin, the landscape should have evolved and been shaped by time, not by the hand of a landscape designer. The images we are left with from his visit revolve around the grotto and a view of the Temple of Bacchus. The earliest grottoes were shrines, both built and natural caves at the sites of sacred springs in ancient Greece, to honour the
Tear_Paul_thesis.docx