Vanbrugh, John
Full Name: Sir John Vanbrugh
Achievements: Successful playwright turned successful Baroque architect (Blenheim Palace)
Born: (Baptized) January 24, 1664; London, England
Died: March 26, 1726; London, England; Aged 62
Field & Discipline: Art; Architecture; Theater; Architect; Dramatist
Language: English
Father: Giles Vanbrugh
Mother: Elizabeth Carleton Barker
Siblings: Dudley; Kenrick; Charles; Philip; Lucy; Anna Maria; Mary; Victoria; Elizabeth; Robina
Spouse: Henrietta Maria Yarburgh
Children: Charles; John
Education: Private tutors/local school
Major Work:
Designed:
Castle Howard, Yorkshire
Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire
Wrote:
"The Relapse"
"The Provok'd Wife"
Life & Times:
When Vanbrugh was 21, a relative, the seventh Earl of Huntingdon, got him a commission in an infantry regiment. In 1688, he was arrested by the French at Calais on suspicion of being a spy. After negotiations for an exchange of prisoners failed, Vanbrugh was sent to Vincennes in 1691 and then to the Bastille prison in Paris in 1692. He was returned to England a year later. In 1694, he served at sea during action against the French and was promoted to Captain.
Vanbrugh had always been fascinated by the theater and now decided to fulfil his fantasy. In 1696, after seeing "Love's Last Shift" (a play of manners by actor/ manager [work performed by] Cibber*) he decided to write a sequel. In six weeks, he finished "The Relapse.”
Its first performance at the Theatre Royal in London's Drury Lane was an immediate success. Cibber himself played the now celebrated part of Lord Foppington, Vanbrugh's extension of Cibber's original character, Sir Novelty Fashion.
In 1697 Vanbrugh wrote his second big hit: "The Provok'd Wife.” Famous actor [work performed by] Garrick* was to make the character of Sir John Brute one of his own. But it was a bawdy play and provided more grist to the mill of those who thought theater was immoral. One critic's particularly vicious attack on such work singled out Vanbrugh and fellow playwright, [a colleague was] William Congreve*.
Since censorship could shut down a theater overnight, Vanbrugh gave up bawdiness and set himself to adapting French plays. But he got bored, and his artistic eye began to wander.
In 1701, Vanbrugh offered to design a house for Whig politician and landowner, the Earl of Carlisle. Rich noblemen were beginning to build new houses of immense grandeur and Carlisle wanted his house, Castle Howard, to be the most splendid. Carlisle and Vanbrugh were members of the same exclusive club in London and Vanbrugh, with no architectural training but a great desire to design a building, persuaded Carlisle he could do the job.
He employed [employed] Hawksmoor*, assistant to eminent British architect [knew] Wren*, to work with him. Hawksmoor supplied the technical expertise and acted as draftsman, quantity surveyor and manager of building works. Although Vanbrugh is credited with designing Castle Howard (and certainly the grand concept was his) he was undoubtedly influenced by Hawksmoor, who had already designed highly individual buildings incorporating many baroque features.
With Carlisle's blessing (and over the loud objections of Wren) Vanbrugh began to build a house for himself in Whitehall in 1700. The land he bought was Crown land made waste by the Great Fire. Wren argued that burned or not, Crown land could not be used for private residences.
Wren lost the battle, but the completed house prompted a chorus of derision. One newspaper labeled it "a wondrous gimcrack.” Irish/English satirist [satirized by] Swift* wrote derogatory verses titled "Vanbrugh's House" (1703).
In 1703-04, as a speculative venture of his own, Vanbrugh built The Queen's Theater in the Haymarket, London, It was a successful building from the outside, but a failure as a theatre, due to the poor acoustics. Vanbrugh lost a considerable amount of money on the project.
Two years later, Vanbrugh received the commission to build Blenheim Palace, a gift from England to John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, for his military successes on the continent. It was named after his victory over the French and Germans at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. Vanbrugh again called in Hawksmoor to help him.
The huge scale of the palace was probably Vanbrugh's idea, but Hawksmoor designed many features. In the summer of 1705, nearly 3,000 workmen started work. The Duke of Marlborough liked Vanbrugh's grandiose plans, but the Duchess was less enthusiastic, and conflicts arose, often settled by Hawksmoor.
In 1711, Vanbrugh was asked to assist in the building of 50 new churches in London, but of his several designs none was chosen. In 1713 he was dismissed as Comptroller of Works after a row over the expenses at Blenheim. But when George I succeeded to the throne in 1714 he was reinstated and knighted.
With his reputation running high, Vanbrugh got numerous commissions for redesigning the country mansions of other nobility. He worked on Audley End, a large Jacobean mansion in East Anglia, which belonged to the Earl of Bindon, a distant relative. For the Duke of Manchester, he restored Kimbolton Castle. He also built a house in Surrey for the Earl of Clare.
By 1716, Vanbrugh's quarrels with the Duchess of Marlborough over Blenheim came to a head and he quit the project. But his reputation was still high, and he succeeded Wren as Surveyor to Greenwich Hospital.
Vanbrugh built himself two houses at Greenwich, one of which was known as the "Mince-Pie House" after its appearance. The other, Vanbrugh Castle, was a small three-cornered castle with battlemented towers and mock bastions.
Vanbrugh's later works, where he did not use Hawksmoor as his colleague, were less baroque in style. The most significant of these were: Eastbury, near Dorset; Seaton Delaval, in Northumberland; and Grimsthorpe Castle, in Lincolnshire.
In 1718, he designed Floors Castle in Scotland for the Duke of Roxburghe. The building is in a simple and more restrained style, although it is massive.
In 1719, Vanbrugh designed the famous gardens at Stowe in Buckinghamshire, which are laid out in a spacious and stately style.
Extra Connections: Fellow-member of the Kit-Kat Club with writers [club member with] Joseph Addison* and [club member with] Steele*
Worked with landscape artist [worked with] Bridgeman*
Landscape artist [work landscaped by] Capability Brown* added to his work at Blenheim
Playwright [work adapted by] Sheridan* adapted “The Relapse.”
Assessment: An accomplished and witty playwright who switched to architecture as an inspired amateur. His architectural work is seen as the embodiment of the heroic baroque style.
Oneliner: Sir John Vanbrugh, playwright and Baroque architect
Bibliography:
- Downes, Kerry, Sir John Vanbrugh, A Biography, Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1987.