Lot 484: Stowe House Ducal Collection Jaques RIGAUD (

Stowe House Ducal Collection
Jaques RIGAUD ( c.1681-1754) & Bernard BARON ( (1696-1762/66) DELl & SCULP Hand coloured etching ' View from the Head of the Lake. Veüe prise sur le Bord, ou à la Têste du Lac.'
' Publish'd by S. Bridgeman May 12. 1739. '
13 1/4 x 19 1/4" ( apeture) in a Hogarth frame.

A pleasure cruise or ferryboat on the lake at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire, with three smaller rowing boats surrounding. A fountain in the background, the park with the house in the distance on the left shore.

Stowe was begun by Sir Richard Temple in 1676, his family having risen from sheep farmers under Elizabeth I. Over the next century, Viscount Cobham and then Earl Temple (Cobham's Grenville nephew) rebuilt it into the great classical show house and landscape which still amazes visitors today. Numerous famous architects worked at Stowe House and Gardens. Among them were Sir John Vanbrugh , William Kent , James Gibbs , Robert Adam , Thomas Pitt and Sir John Soane , making Stowe one of the most important houses and estates in the country. The house is now part of Stowe School, founded in 1923. Plate 12 to the series 'Stowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire' published by Sarah Bridgeman , wife of Charles Bridgeman who in 1733-34 commissioned Jacques Rigaud and Bernard Baron to engrave some views of Stowe.