ARTS
Exhibitions 1
In the Dutch manner
Mary Keen
The Anglo Dutch Garden Exhibition (Christie's, till 3 February)
The study of garden history is still new enough to be entertainingly controversial. Do we detect the call for seconds out of the ring in these two statements? 'William and Mary made the gardens of Kensington Palace particularly their own . . . but it is above all in smaller provincial or town gardens that the Dutch style prospered' and 'The only English gardens for which the epithet "Dutch" was at all justified were the royal gardens'. In the `Dutch style prospered' corner, we have Professor John Dixon Hunt, director of studies in land- scape architecture at Dumbarton Oaks and organiser of this exhibition, which was first seen at Het Loo and is now showing in a. slightly reduced version at Christie's (8 King Street, SW1). In the 'not all that justified' corner, we have David Jacques, English Heritage's inspector of historic parks and gardens and editor of the recent tercentenary volume celebrating The Gar- dens of William and Mary (Helm, £15.95). It is hard for the amateur to be anything but uncertain about what constitutes a Dutch, rather than a French (or Italian) garden in England. The scholarly manifes- tos of both sides will need some close scrutiny before the casual observer can decide whether to root for the professor or for the inspector.
The exhibition at Christie's has been beautifully designed by George Carter, who had a hand in the Repton celebration at the V & A in 1982. The smell of hyacinths, combined with the sensation of being in dappled shade under a trellis pavilion, is beguiling. There are lovely things to see: ornament and magnificence abound on furniture and Delft. This is bewildering for those in search of 'influ- ences for Professor Dixon Hunt's small provincial or town gardens, especially as Louis XIV seems to have waved his gilded wand over many of the plans. However, a .7)yrhain kluy• A fine example of Dutch taste: Dyrham Park near Bristol, created by William Blathwayt, secretary of war to William III. Some of the pools and canals still remain. careful look at the paintings, combined with close inspection of the small print in the formidable bilingual catalogue, should leave the visitor with a clearer impression of the non-royal Dutch garden.
Dutch gardens are governed by the geometry of dykes and canals. They spread sideways into the rectangles between the waterways. Unlike French gardens of the period, which tended to long baroque central axes disappearing over the horizon in a blaze of power and glory, many Dutch gardens seem to have been modest affairs and probably lacked drama. Holland is not a country for cascades. In French land- scapes, avenues expressed territorial im- peratives: in Dutch ones trees were used to keep sea winds at bay, or to provide shade for roads. Even small French gardens formed a unified if complicated whole, but Dutch gardens of the same date are divided into a series of 'neat and dainty' enclosures which bear very little relation to one another. Horticulture was an important Dutch tradition — plants were less impor- tant in France — and in many of the simple flowerbeds shown in the paintings flowers are grown like museum pieces. Carefully staked hollyhocks or single stem roses can be seen in at least two pictures and one Dutch gardening manual on show was dedicated to 'those who love, rather than trade and deal in flowers'. In the smaller gardens there is little sign of luxury, and the people in the paintings of these look as though they might be discussing botany, or taking a constitutional. In paintings of French gardens people generally appear to be plotting or flirting.
The shared traditions of Europe, with regional variations, make separating national characteristics almost impossible. From visiting the exhibition and reading the catalogue one is led to believe that the astonishing number of water gardens which appeared in late 17th-century England were Dutch-inspired; but it was Charles II, hot from the French Court in the year of the Restoration, who ordered the first canal to be dug in England. In 1661 he arranged for an even larger sheet of water to be laid out in front of Hampton Court, so that when Catherine of Braganza step- ped on to her balcony, she had a magnifi- cent surprise. This fact leaves plenty of room for speculation about how snobbish English gardeners were at the end of the 17th century. If you had ordered a canal in the reign of Charles II, did you then pretend that it was Dutch when William and Mary came to the throne?
The intellectual background was a major influence on gardens here, as well as in Holland, and botany was important on both sides of the North Sea. John Dixon Hunt suggests that classical humanism and Calvinist promptings encouraged homage to the riches of God's creation in Holland, Inferring that such sober aspirations were particularly Dutch. Yet in England around the middle of the century there were Royalist gardeners in exile who also ac- knowledged that gardening was good for the soul. Admiration for the Georgics was hardly confined to Holland and in both countries orchards were designated sacred places. Whether many small gardens of virtuous gentlemen which had a little wa- ter, simple flowerbeds, orchards and an emphasis on horticulture or botany were a direct result of the love of gardening displayed by William and Mary may re- main, for some, questionable. The geomet- ry of the polder obviously sat uneasily on British geography. In the paintings of Dynevor the country can be seen escaping from the suppression of the formal garden to boil up into Welsh hills.
Our perceptions of the Dutch garden are filtered through contemporary accounts, as Professor Dixon Hunt points out in his compelling essay in the catalogue. Con- temporary critics can often be biased, which leads one to ask all sorts of ques- tions. Pope, for example, was a Catholic who hated the Dutch; he also disliked formal gardens: might he not have con- nected topiary with the Dutch in order to discredit a style of gardening which he wanted to excommunicate? It is, in the end, all a question of personal interpreta- tion. Christie's, the Baring Foundation and other sponsors have generously laid on a field day for the garden historians, and spectators should regard this as the first round of many Anglo-Dutch encounters. Both professionals and amateurs alike ought to enjoy the exhibition enormously.
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