Chatsworth, Arcadia, Now: Seven Scenes from the Life of a House

Hardback

Main Details

Title Chatsworth, Arcadia, Now: Seven Scenes from the Life of a House
Authors and Contributors      Foreword by The Duke of Devonshire
Foreword by The Duchess of Devonshire
By (author) John-Paul Stonard
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:416
Dimensions(mm): Height 309,Width 203
Category/GenreArt History
Exhibition catalogues and specific collections
Photographs: collections
Residential buildings and domestic buildings
History of architecture
British and Irish History
Museum, historic sites, gallery and art guides
ISBN/Barcode 9780241461914
ClassificationsDewey:728.8094251
Audience
General
Illustrations 400 colour photographs throughout

Publishing Details

Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint Particular Books
Publication Date 21 October 2021
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

A strikingly modern portrait of Chatsworth, the grandest of English country houses No house embodies the spirit of one dynasty better than Chatsworth. Set in an unspoilt Derbyshire valley, surrounded by wild moorland, and home to the Cavendish family for sixteen generations, this treasure house is filled with works of art and objects - from Nicolas Poussin's The Arcadian Shepherds and Antonio Canova's Endymion to great contemporary paintings by Lucian Freud and David Hockney - which have all, in their time, represented the very best of the new. As Stoker Cavendish, the twelfth Duke of Devonshire, likes to point out- 'Everything was new once.' Following the completion of a decade-long programme of renovations, the exterior of Chatsworth is gleaming, its stone fa ade newly cleaned and its window frames freshly gilded. Inside, through the inspired juxtaposition of old and modern, its rooms fizz with creative energy. Chatsworth, Arcadia, Now tells the story of this extraordinary place through seven scenes from its life, alongside a stunning photographic portrait of the house and its collections, captured at a moment of high optimism in its long history.

Author Biography

John-Paul Stonard (Author) John-Paul Stonard is an art historian and author. His books include Creation, German Divided and, as editor and contributor, The Books that Shaped Art History. He co-curated the 2014 exhibition Kenneth Clark- Looking for Civilisation at Tate Britain. His writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian and The Burlington Magazine. He lives in Suffolk.

Reviews

Chatsworth, Arcadia, Now is about the most sumptuous book I've seen in a third of a century of book reviewing. It charts the story of sixteen generations of Cavendishes' involvement with one of the two or three grandest and most beautiful houses in Britain -- Andrew Roberts, author of GEORGE III Just about the most mouthwatering book produced this century... Gardens, landscapes, libraries, wild flower meadows, works of art, architecture... Bliss! -- Alan Titchmarsh MBE This glamorous, artistic book is a fitting tribute to a decade of renovation... One could say that the book is a collection piece in its own right... Breathtaking still-life studies underline the connections and contrasts between old and new... The sense of a great house with a vibrant past, present and a future is palpable -- Jeremy Musson * Country Life * Anyone who cannot visit in person can now luxuriate in this astonishing book, with its brilliant photographs fabulously staged and daringly laid out... as glorious as the house itself -- Clive Aslet * House & Garden *