It can also be seen from the letter of February 1767, that Boyd had decided to commission two landscapes as over doors for the doors leading into the dining room and library. His chosen artist for these two paintings was George Barrett (1728 or Barrett was born the son of an Irish tailor and was essentially a self-taught artist who in his early years in Ireland specialised in the Italianate views. He moved to London in 1763, and within a year he had secured a number of distinguished patrons including the Duke of Portland and, shortly after, the Duke of Buccleuch. In many respects his subject material was similar to Martin’s. He was attracted to the natural landscape following a tour of North Wales and the Lake District, which inspired him to produce a number of sublime landscape views that became very popular and commanded high prices. He was, like Martin, an earlier member of the Royal Academy in 1768. Figure 4.9. The view of the front of Danson House, painted by George Barrett, circa 1768 It was common practice that if a pair of paintings was required, as in over doors or to go on either side of a room, one artist would be commissioned to paint both pictures. Boyd did follow this principle as can be seen from the sale catalogue of his paintings following his death. Due to financial circumstances, his son John Boyd II sold the majority of his picture collection in 1805. Within the sale we can see that Boyd was an active collector of fine art, as well as commissioning works from artists of the day to furnish Danson House. In his art collection we see pictures by Rembrandt and Cuyp, along with a number of English artists such as Wilson, Van Loo, Romney, Wheatley and Joseph Wright of Derby. Within the sale there were a number of paintings, which could be considered to be pairs, works by Wilson, Joseph Wright of Derby and Barrett had all been purchased, or painted, in pairs for Danson. However, the over doors in the saloon were painted by two different artists, one by Barrett and the other by Martin, and this would be considered unusual. Barrett had painted three paintings for Boyd, including the one for the saloon; he may have had other commitments to fulfil and was therefore unable to complete the pair for the saloon.
undertaken by another workshop. Subcontracting the basic components would have allowed the manufacturing of these objects to be speeded up. Chambers’ favoured sculptor was Joseph Wilton; they had worked together on a number of projects when they both returned to England in 1755. They first met in Italy, when they were undertaking their Grand Tour in 1754, where at this time they were living in Rome. Chambers was lodging with Giovanni Battista Piranesi and this gave him the opportunity to learn from this revolutionary architect and artist, the radical changes affecting architectural design at that period. As Piranesi’s studio was a centre for such innovative thinking, it attracted a number of artists and milordi, who were also on their Grand Tour. Wilton was a regular visitor to Piranesi’s studio and it was probably here that Chambers and Wilton’s lifelong friendship began. The quality of the carving on the three fireplaces at Danson would seem to indicate that without doubt they were the work of Joseph Wilton. It may be suggested that as part of Boyd’s design scheme for the rooms at Danson, Chambers produced drawings for three fireplaces, in particular for the fireplace in the saloon, which is the grandest as befits the main room of the house. It would seem illogical that if the landowner was involved with such a hands-on approach to commissioning paintings, mirrors, door casings and picture frames to furnish the grandest rooms in the house, that fireplace design would feature as a focal point for display of the collection’s most prized paintings. The next imposing objects in the saloon are the two carved and gilt pier mirrors, which are situated on the walls between the fireplace and the two doors, leading to the library and dining room. During the refurbishment of Danson by English Heritage in 2004, they reproduced the mirrors in the saloon; in September 2013, one of the original mirrors with a nineteenth century copy, came up for auction at Christies in London at their Fine Furniture Sale.
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