Printing plate
copper plate
Ruins of the Kitchen, Stanton-Harcourt, Oxfordshire
Object number
LDSAL2022.2.127
Artist/Designer/Maker
Harcourt, George (2nd Earl Harcourt) - Engraver
Sandby, Paul - after
Sandby, Paul - after
Production date
1763
Material
copper
Technique
Etching
Dimensions
height: 430mm
width: 535mm
width: 535mm
Location
Burlington House -
Content description
Printing plate depicting the ruins of the kitchen at Stanton-Harcourt, Oxfordshire
Inscriptions
Inscription content
View of the Ruins of the Kitchen at
STANTON-HARCOURT
in the COUNTY of OXFORD
STANTON-HARCOURT
in the COUNTY of OXFORD
Inscription content
Etch'd by Newnham 1763
Inscription date
1763
Inscription content
Drawn after Nature by P. Sandby 1760
Inscription date
1760
Inscription content
Societati Anitquariorum Londinensi dono dedit Simon Comes de Harcourt Socius A.D. MDCCLXXXV
Inscription date
1785
Inscription content
III
References
Reference (controlled)
Betti, Chiara. “Lost Treasures Resurface: The Untold Story of the Society of Antiquaries’ Printing Plates.” The Antiquaries Journal 104 (2024): 304–42. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581524000179.
Printing plate depicting the ruins of the kitchen at Stanton-Harcourt, Oxfordshire
The plate was re-published in 1785 as the third in a series depicting Stanton-Harcourt, with a dedication to the Society of Antiquaries.
From K. Sloan, "Noble Art", 2000:
"In 1763, employing the superlatives which were characteristic of his praise of the work of his amateur friends, Horace Walpole described these two prints as 'the richest etchings I ever saw, and masterly executed.' He noted that Lord Nuneham was planning two more, which were printed the following year, depicting slightly different views of the same subjects. Over this brief period in the early 1760s he made six etchings after Sandby's compositions and another half-dozen after drawings by his brother William and paintings by Claude Lorraine. Only one of the etchings actually states in the letterpress that it is after Sandby's drawing from nature, but William Sandby's inscriptions in pencil seem to confirm Sandby drew the original views.
In the early 1750s, when his father, the first Earl Harcourt was governor to the royal princes, Viscount Nuneham and his sister Lady Elizabeth Harcourt received lessons in drawing figures from Richard Dalton, and in landscape from George Knapton, Alexander Cozens and Joshua Kirby[…]
As early as 1753, the Earl had been working on plans to move the original village of Newnham Courtney and create a Claudian landscape to set off his new Palladian villa. Viscount Nuneham became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and presented the plates of his etchings to the Society in 1785. However, his choice of the ancient manor at Stanton Harcourt as the subject of these etchings after Sandby rather than the new villa was probably not merely for antiquarian purposes. He was a confirmed francophile and by depicting the seat granted to the de Harcourts at the Conquest, he commemorated his family's French roots. But he was also a republican idealist and disciple of Rousseau and for a period denounced hereditary titles, refusing to be called 'My Lord'. He omitted his title on these prints, and objected to his father's tenants being forcibly removed from their homes and their medieval church destroyed in order to provide him with a better view and more scope for developing a classical landscape and a new temple-like church; the event is thought to have inspired Goldsmith's poem 'The Deserted Village' of 1770. […]
In 1783, however, the 'gentle executioner' as Walpole called him, became, like his brother, an intimate of the royal family and confined his republicanism to his own estate where he bettered his tenants' lives in more practical ways and employed Capability Brown to eliminate the formal vistas. In the 1760s, Rousseau had sown not only wildflower seeds at Nuneham but also his taste for a nature of 'sentiment'."
From K. Sloan, "Noble Art", 2000:
"In 1763, employing the superlatives which were characteristic of his praise of the work of his amateur friends, Horace Walpole described these two prints as 'the richest etchings I ever saw, and masterly executed.' He noted that Lord Nuneham was planning two more, which were printed the following year, depicting slightly different views of the same subjects. Over this brief period in the early 1760s he made six etchings after Sandby's compositions and another half-dozen after drawings by his brother William and paintings by Claude Lorraine. Only one of the etchings actually states in the letterpress that it is after Sandby's drawing from nature, but William Sandby's inscriptions in pencil seem to confirm Sandby drew the original views.
In the early 1750s, when his father, the first Earl Harcourt was governor to the royal princes, Viscount Nuneham and his sister Lady Elizabeth Harcourt received lessons in drawing figures from Richard Dalton, and in landscape from George Knapton, Alexander Cozens and Joshua Kirby[…]
As early as 1753, the Earl had been working on plans to move the original village of Newnham Courtney and create a Claudian landscape to set off his new Palladian villa. Viscount Nuneham became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and presented the plates of his etchings to the Society in 1785. However, his choice of the ancient manor at Stanton Harcourt as the subject of these etchings after Sandby rather than the new villa was probably not merely for antiquarian purposes. He was a confirmed francophile and by depicting the seat granted to the de Harcourts at the Conquest, he commemorated his family's French roots. But he was also a republican idealist and disciple of Rousseau and for a period denounced hereditary titles, refusing to be called 'My Lord'. He omitted his title on these prints, and objected to his father's tenants being forcibly removed from their homes and their medieval church destroyed in order to provide him with a better view and more scope for developing a classical landscape and a new temple-like church; the event is thought to have inspired Goldsmith's poem 'The Deserted Village' of 1770. […]
In 1783, however, the 'gentle executioner' as Walpole called him, became, like his brother, an intimate of the royal family and confined his republicanism to his own estate where he bettered his tenants' lives in more practical ways and employed Capability Brown to eliminate the formal vistas. In the 1760s, Rousseau had sown not only wildflower seeds at Nuneham but also his taste for a nature of 'sentiment'."
