Country Life

The draughtsman’s contract

THE tradition of painting country houses and their grounds stretches back as far as the 16th century, but its flowering in England was in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. There was a lull in the 19th, but country-house aficionados will be conversant with the delightful Rococo excursions of Rex Whistler, the strangely enigmatic paintings of Felix Kelly and the tempestuous gouaches of John Piper, all of the 20th century. However, the most evocative modern take on the earlier topographical tradition is Peter Greenaway’s 1982 film The Draughtsman’s Contract.

'Kip’s 58 views are a matchless record of Franco-Dutch formal Cotswold gardens'

Michael Nyman’s insistently repetitive, Purcell-like soundtrack for the film is a perfect counterpoint to the feverishly

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