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Trees in Mr Lock's Park, Leatherhead
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George Barret the Elder RA (1728/32 - 1784)
Trees in Mr Lock's Park, Leatherhead
Watercolour
Museum number: P246
On display: North Drawing Room
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
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Curatorial note
This drawing was made in the grounds of Norbury Park near Mickleham, Surrey, renowned for its ancient trees and sylvan setting and the subject of Norbury Park - A Poem by James Woodhouse, 1789, dedicated to its owner William Lock (or Locke) and published in 1803.
Lock (1732-1810), bought Norbury Park in 1774. He pulled down the old house and built a new one designed by the architect Thomas Sandby where he entertained friends including Madame De Staël and other French émigrés and the writer Fanny Burney. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Lawrence and Henry Fuseli were frequent visitors and Turner was invited to paint in the Park (Beech Trees at Norbury Park, 1797, National Gallery of Ireland). Amongst its rooms is a celebrated saloon decorated (1783) as a bower enclosed by a roof of vine-covered trellis with an opening in the centre to a fictive evening sky. Three sides of the room were painted by Barrett with assistance from G.B. Cipriani (figures) and B. Pastorini (the sky) with compositions based on Lake District landscapes, while windows in the south wall framed the real view towards Box Hill and Dorking. At sunset, the light from the setting sun aligned on the western wall with the direction of light from a painted sunset so all the landscapes appeared to be illumined from the same source.
It is possible that another watercolour by Barrett in the Soane collection, P436, also shows Norbury Park. An oil painting of The Drive, Norbury Park (1775) is in Norwich Castle Museum.
Lock (1732-1810), bought Norbury Park in 1774. He pulled down the old house and built a new one designed by the architect Thomas Sandby where he entertained friends including Madame De Staël and other French émigrés and the writer Fanny Burney. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Lawrence and Henry Fuseli were frequent visitors and Turner was invited to paint in the Park (Beech Trees at Norbury Park, 1797, National Gallery of Ireland). Amongst its rooms is a celebrated saloon decorated (1783) as a bower enclosed by a roof of vine-covered trellis with an opening in the centre to a fictive evening sky. Three sides of the room were painted by Barrett with assistance from G.B. Cipriani (figures) and B. Pastorini (the sky) with compositions based on Lake District landscapes, while windows in the south wall framed the real view towards Box Hill and Dorking. At sunset, the light from the setting sun aligned on the western wall with the direction of light from a painted sunset so all the landscapes appeared to be illumined from the same source.
It is possible that another watercolour by Barrett in the Soane collection, P436, also shows Norbury Park. An oil painting of The Drive, Norbury Park (1775) is in Norwich Castle Museum.
Associated items
Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk