Information on Loughborough

English Landscape Garden Design re-interpreted by Tsarist Russia

Posted on 23/04/08
J. Milton

English Landscape Garden Design re-interpreted by Tsarist Russia

The creation of the English Landscape Garden is rightly considered to be one of this countrys greatest artistic achievements. What is perhaps not so well known is the impact that these ideas had in Europe and in particular Russia.

The influence of west European garden design in Russia can be traced back to Peter I who, in his Grand Embassy of 1697-98, visited Holland and England. But it is in the reign of Catherine the Great that the concept of the English Landscape Garden was introduced to Russia.

Unlike Peter, Catherine never travelled abroad to see the gardens of England first hand, but she studied closely contemporary publications and prints which she acquired in large numbers. The ideas that she took from her studies were to be employed in creating new gardens and landscapes at the Imperial palaces.

rom the mid Eighteenth Century many members of the Russian Nobility went on their own Grand Tours which included visiting England and its principal parks and gardens. This stimulated the creation of landscape parks and gardens on their estates on their return to Russia. Both Catherine and her nobles employed English and Scottish gardeners, architects and craftsmen to work on their houses and estates. The interest in English landscapes extended to the Frog Dinner Service produced for Catherine by Josiah Wedgwood. This is decorated with views of English Parks and Gardens taken from contemporary engravings.

In the Botanic Garden Lecture at the University of Leicester on 15 May, Professor Alexi Leporc, a long-time Anglophile, will examine the impact that the concept of the English Landscape had on Russian landscapes and how this concept was developed in a Russian context. He will go on to show how the landscaped park and garden evolved in Russia in the nineteenth century and to compare and contrast this to how the originals evolved in England.

The lecture will provide a fascinating insight into the exchange of ideas between different cultures and how the same ideas evolve in different settings. It will also provide an opportunity for us to re-evaluate part of our own heritage from a different point of view. The lecture will be illustrated with an interesting selection of photographs and paintings of Russian landscapes that will be unfamiliar to an English audience.

This lecture is jointly sponsored by the Friends of the University of Leicester Botanic Garden and the Leicestershire and Rutland Gardens Trust.

The Botanic Garden Lecture is held at the University of Leicester on 15 May at 8pm, Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 1. It is free and open to the public.