This watercolour and its pendant (D.2018.ST.8) are a rare survival and an important record of the close friendship between the amateur artist Bampfylde and landowner Henry Hoare (1705-1785), the creator of the world-famous landscape garden at Stourhead. Bampfylde was a frequent visitor to Stourhead over many years, copying pictures in the Hoare collection, and painting and drawing views of the garden and surrounding countryside. Bampfylde created his own landscape garden at his estate at Hestercombe in Somerset in the years after 1750. The gardens at Hestercombe and Stourhead progressed contemporaneously, and it seems clear that the estate owners made contributions to each other gardens; certainly the success of Bampfylde’s cascade at Hestercombe was followed by one he helped to designed at Stourhead in 1765. Many of Bampfylde’s drawings remain at Stourhead, which is now the property of the National Trust. His earliest known drawing of Stourhead is the view of the Grotto, dated 1753, now in the British Museum (1970,0919.20). Bampfylde recorded the appearance of the garden at Stourhead over many years, and many of his watercolours done there are now in an album in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E. 303-433.1949). These watercolours are the most accurate record of the garden during the period 1760 to 1780. Two large watercolours of Stourhead by Bampfylde were engraved by Vivares in 1777. The watercolours must have been painted around the same time as this pair, which are dated 1776; no other pair of finished watercolours of the garden at Stourhead is known. The Chinese Bridge, built of wood in 1749, was removed by Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1758-1838), who wished to give the garden a more classical appearance. Other views of the Chinese Bridge are in the Victoria and Albert Museum album. The Pantheon, which still stands, was designed by Henry Flitcroft in 1753.

Dreweatts (Donnington), 20 August 2013, lot 8; purchased there by a private collector; sold on private collector’s behalf by Guy Peppiatt Fine Art (London); purchased by the Spooner Charitable Trust, 2018; gift of the Spooner Charitable Trust to the Samuel Courtauld Trust, 2018

Landscape Portrait. Then and Now, Hestercombe Gallery, Somerset, 13/03/2021-25/07/2021

Watermark: Watermark: centre: "J WHATMAN" (if this is the countermark to that on D.2018.ST.8, then the mark is the same, but larger than, Heawood 105 - dated 1781, with a question mark).

Collector's mark: none.

Inscription: Recto: lower left corner, brown ink, signed and dated: "CW Bampfylde 1776".