Date of Birth: ?
Date of Death: 1738
Nationality: English
Notes: Bridgeman is one of the key figures in the establishment of the English Garden. He provided a crucial role in the transition from the formal, geometric layout of the early 18th century gardens to the natural look of Capability Brown. Bridgeman was the royal gardener to George II and Queen Caroline and also worked at Clermont, Eastbury, Wimpole, and Marble Hill. He reached his peak with his work at Stowe.

Date of Birth: Circa 1730
Date of Death: Post 1791
Nationality: French

Date of Birth: 1684-85
Date of Death: 1748
Nationality: English
Notes: Born as William Cant in Bridlington, Yorkshire, in the late 17th century, the future William Kent, who would be known in later life as "Il Signore," began as an apprentice coach painter in Hull, where his talent was soon noticed by a local squire, who, together with a number of the local Yorkshire gentry, raised the money to send Kent to Italy to study painting and architecture (he accompanied the collector John Tellman). Kent was "discovered" in Italy by Lord Burlington and became his protégé as an apostle of Palladian design. Burlington had big plans for Kent: he wanted to make him England's greatest history painter. Though this did not come to pass (his painting today is considered mediocre), Kent did become a very successful arbiter of taste. He was an architect and furniture designer, a painter, and an incredibly important landscape architect (he was one of the originators of natural landscape design and is considered by many historians to be the father of modern garden design). He was ahead of Capability Brown, Robert Adam, and Horace Walpole in setting new styles and began the trend toward controlling every aspect of architectural design. Among his followers were Matthew Brettingham the Elder, Henry Flitcroft, Isaac Ware, Stephen Wright, John Vardy, and Thomas Ripley. Though famous as an evangelist of Palladian design, his training in Italy, specifically the influence of the Italian Baroque, never left Kent's work (he was trained as a Baroque painter). The design of his famous console tables can be traced directly to Roman Baroque examples, and even some of interiors are Baroque, most notably his magnificently over-the-top staircase at 44 Berkeley Square in London. Little known is that Kent also designed for the theater, a result, very likely, of his admiration of the work of Inigo Jones.

Date of Birth: Circa 1742
Date of Death: 1814
Nationality: Italian
Notes: Valdrè was an Italian artist and architect who was born in Faenza and who is sometimes referred to as "il Faenza" or "Il Faentino." He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Parma, where, in 1764, he won an award for his drawing of "Agar in the Desert Consoled by the Angel." In 1768 Valdrè completed his studies at the French Academy in Rome. He later lived in England, where he practiced in a Neoclassical style under the patronage of the 1st Marquess of Buckingham.

Date of Birth: 1664
Date of Death: 1726
Nationality: English
Notes: Famous today as a soldier, playwright, and one of England's greatest architects, John Vanbrugh was born in London in 1664, the 4th of 19 children. His father, Giles Vanbrugh, was the son of Giles van Brugg, a Haarlem merchant who fled Flanders as a Protestant refugee. John's mother, Elizabeth, was the youngest daughter of Sir Dudley Carleton of Ember Court, Surrey. In his early years John worked in the wine trade for his cousin, William Matthews. Between 1683 and 1685 he served in the East India Company, trading at Surat on the west coast of India. In January of 1686 he was commissioned in the regiment of foot commanded by the Earl of Huntingdon. In September 1688 Vanbrugh was arrested in France as a spy and imprisoned in the Bastille. After his release he set himself upon the path of becoming a playwright. With astonishing speed, Vanbrugh became a huge success in London; his 1697 play "The Provok'd Wife" is probably the most popular and enduring of his plays. In 1704 he built his own theater - the Queen's Theatre (aka Italian Opera House) in Haymarket, London. Nobody knows when he turned his talents to architecture; what is certain is that in 1699 he famously created designs for Castle Howard for his friend, and fellow Kit-Cat Club member, the Earl of Carlisle. Vanbrugh displaced the famously difficult William Talman as Lord Carlisle's architect for Castle Howard (the Earl felt Talman had overcharged him). Talman wasn't just the Earl of Carlisle's architect - he was also the Comptroller of His Majesty's Works. In his role as First Lord of the Treasury Lord Carlisle wielded enormous power in the Office of the King's Works; it was thus not surprising that in June of 1702 Vanbrugh replaced Talman as Comptroller, and, over the next few years, also took over Talman's place as chief architect to the Whig aristocracy. The best summation of his career as an architect comes from Howard Colvin, writing in "A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600 - 1840": "It was a style that had no exact parallel in the history of European architecture, though it drew on French, English and Italian sources. Its character was baroque in the sense that it aimed at effects of movement,' but it achieved them by the grouping of masses and skilful handling of recession and projection rather than by the mere manipulation of the conventional apparatus of classical architecture. In achieving these effects Vanbrugh drew inspiration from the medieval and Elizabethan past as well as from the English baroque of Talman and Wren." Colvin goes on to say that the design of Vanbrugh's great houses shows a strong sense of the picturesque and that he must also be regarded as a pioneer of the Picturesque landscape movement. In 1704 Vanbrugh was appointed a herald and created Clarenceux King of Arms; on September 19, 1714 he was knighted by King George I. Though Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace are his most famous works, many architectural historians consider Seaton Delaval Hall to be Vanbrugh's masterpiece; Grimsthorpe Castle was his last important work. During Vanbrugh's last years British architecture came strongly under the influence of the Palladian style espoused by Lord Burlington. So complete was this new Palladian juggernaut that it completely eclipsed Vanbrugh's highly individual Baroque style, leaving him out of style and forgotten by the time of his death in 1726. The most famous portrait of Vanbrugh is the Kneller painting of him as a member of the Kit-Cat Club, executed when he was around 40 (in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London). The largest collection of Vanbrugh's drawings is in the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Date of Birth: 1787
Date of Death: 1879
Nationality: British
Notes: Blore was famouusly valued by his clients for his reliable estimates. Howard Colvin wrote that "A dull competence pervades all his work."

Date of Birth: Mar 3, 1737
Date of Death: Jan 19, 1793
Nationality: British
Notes: Thomas Pitt, 1st Lord Camelford, was a well-known patron of the arts, gentleman architect, and the son of Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc (died 1761), a brother of William Pitt the Elder. Thomas was a Member of Parliament for Old Sarum from December 1761 until 1768, for Okehampton from 1768 until 1774, and again for Old Sarum, from 1774 until he was raised to the peerage in 1784. Pitt married Anne Wilkinson in 1771, with whom he had two children: Thomas (later 3rd Lord Camelford) and Anne. In his biography of Horace Walpole, Timothy Mowl says Pitt was a homosexual who "was 'outed' by that early queer-basher Mrs. Thrale."

Date of Birth: 1697
Date of Death: 1769
Nationality: English
Notes: Henry Flitcroft was an assistant and protégé of Lord Burlington and was a follower of William Kent, whom he succeeded as Master Mason and Deputy-Surveyor. Flitcroft became Comptroller of the Works in 1758. His first building was Bower House.

Date of Birth: 1682
Date of Death: 1754
Nationality: English
Notes: Ditchley Park is considered Gibbs's most important country house. The architect is most noted for his famous design for the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, a remarkably advanced design for its time, even when examined within the context of continental European design trends. John Wilton-Ely, writing in "The Triumph of the Baroque: Architecture in Europe 1600-1750": "In the history of ecclesiastical architecture, Gibbs's church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields was to prove one of the most influential designs throughout the English-speaking world of Protestant worship."

Date of Birth: Circa 1686
Date of Death: 1746
Nationality: Italian
Notes: Leoni was an Italian architect who published Palladio's works in English.

Date of Birth: 1753
Date of Death: 1837
Nationality: British
Notes: Routinely considered one of England's greatest architects, even in his lifetime, Soane's influence continues to be substantial. Blundeston House is one of his earliest works, while Letton Hall and Tyringham are considered among his most significant.

Date of Birth: ?
Date of Death: 1690
Nationality: English
Notes: Cleere worked for Sir Christopher Wren as his chief joiner.

Date of Birth: 1664
Date of Death: 1726
Nationality: English
Notes: Famous today as a soldier, playwright, and one of England's greatest architects, John Vanbrugh was born in London in 1664, the 4th of 19 children. His father, Giles Vanbrugh, was the son of Giles van Brugg, a Haarlem merchant who fled Flanders as a Protestant refugee. John's mother, Elizabeth, was the youngest daughter of Sir Dudley Carleton of Ember Court, Surrey. In his early years John worked in the wine trade for his cousin, William Matthews. Between 1683 and 1685 he served in the East India Company, trading at Surat on the west coast of India. In January of 1686 he was commissioned in the regiment of foot commanded by the Earl of Huntingdon. In September 1688 Vanbrugh was arrested in France as a spy and imprisoned in the Bastille. After his release he set himself upon the path of becoming a playwright. With astonishing speed, Vanbrugh became a huge success in London; his 1697 play "The Provok'd Wife" is probably the most popular and enduring of his plays. In 1704 he built his own theater - the Queen's Theatre (aka Italian Opera House) in Haymarket, London. Nobody knows when he turned his talents to architecture; what is certain is that in 1699 he famously created designs for Castle Howard for his friend, and fellow Kit-Cat Club member, the Earl of Carlisle. Vanbrugh displaced the famously difficult William Talman as Lord Carlisle's architect for Castle Howard (the Earl felt Talman had overcharged him). Talman wasn't just the Earl of Carlisle's architect - he was also the Comptroller of His Majesty's Works. In his role as First Lord of the Treasury Lord Carlisle wielded enormous power in the Office of the King's Works; it was thus not surprising that in June of 1702 Vanbrugh replaced Talman as Comptroller, and, over the next few years, also took over Talman's place as chief architect to the Whig aristocracy. The best summation of his career as an architect comes from Howard Colvin, writing in "A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600 - 1840": "It was a style that had no exact parallel in the history of European architecture, though it drew on French, English and Italian sources. Its character was baroque in the sense that it aimed at effects of movement,' but it achieved them by the grouping of masses and skilful handling of recession and projection rather than by the mere manipulation of the conventional apparatus of classical architecture. In achieving these effects Vanbrugh drew inspiration from the medieval and Elizabethan past as well as from the English baroque of Talman and Wren." Colvin goes on to say that the design of Vanbrugh's great houses shows a strong sense of the picturesque and that he must also be regarded as a pioneer of the Picturesque landscape movement. In 1704 Vanbrugh was appointed a herald and created Clarenceux King of Arms; on September 19, 1714 he was knighted by King George I. Though Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace are his most famous works, many architectural historians consider Seaton Delaval Hall to be Vanbrugh's masterpiece; Grimsthorpe Castle was his last important work. During Vanbrugh's last years British architecture came strongly under the influence of the Palladian style espoused by Lord Burlington. So complete was this new Palladian juggernaut that it completely eclipsed Vanbrugh's highly individual Baroque style, leaving him out of style and forgotten by the time of his death in 1726. The most famous portrait of Vanbrugh is the Kneller painting of him as a member of the Kit-Cat Club, executed when he was around 40 (in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London). The largest collection of Vanbrugh's drawings is in the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Date of Birth: 1713
Date of Death: 1770
Nationality: Italian
Notes: Borra was a Piedmontese architect who accompanied Robert Wood and James Dawkins on their tour of Syria and Asia Minor in 1750-51 and who prepared the drawings for their two volumes on the ruins of Baalbec and Palmyra. In his native Italy Borra is most noted for his work at Racconigi Palace; he spent the majority of the 1750s in England, where his work at Stowe (done before Robert Adam's return to Britain from Italy) makes him one of the pioneers of Neoclassicism in England.

Date of Birth: 1728
Date of Death: 1792
Nationality: British
Notes: The prolific Robert Adam was the son of William Adam, Sr., and one of the four Adam brothers. Robert is noted for having "Never once built a great house from scratch," though he was the "it" architect of the 1760s and 70s, with an impressive and aristocratic client list a mile long. The Georgian House, Edinburgh, is considered by many to be Adam's urban masterpiece. Among his finest works are the Library of Kenwood House, London; Culzean Castle, Ayrshire; the Library of Mellerstain House, Scottish Borders; Syon House, London; and Newby Hall in Yorkshire.