#Vanbrugh

[thesixthduke]

[vintagestagehotties]

Hot Vintage Stage Actress Round 1

Anna Pavlova: Nikiya in La Bayadère (1901 St Petersburg); The Swan in The Dying Swan (1905 St Petersburg); Giselle in Giselle (1906 St Petersburg)

Dame Irene Vanbrugh: Lady Mary Lasenby in The Admirable Crichton (1902 West End); Grace Insole in Grace (1911 West End); Lady Gay Spanker in London Assurance (1913 West End)

Propaganda under the cut

Anna Pavlova:

with her pet swan, Jack

Irene Vanbrugh:

[maypoleman1]

26th March

Fair Rosamund

Queen Eleanor and the Fair Rosamund by Evelyn De Morgan (1902). Source: De Morgan Collection website

On this day in 1726, Sir John Vanbrugh, playwright and architect, died. Vanbrugh’s chief claim to architectural fame was the construction of Blenheim Palace, outside Woodstock in Oxfordshire. In doing so, Sir John destroyed a former nunnery in which Fair Rosamund was buried. Rosamund Clifford, court lady, was also the not-so-secret long term lover of King Henry II, and who bore him two illegitimate sons. Once Henry’s wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine found out about the liaison, Henry secreted Rosamund away in a luxurious house, only approachable via a complex maze, called Labyrinthus. Eleanor however, knowing the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, tracked Rosamund down and found her rival by following a length of tell-tale tread, snagged on a branch of the maze. Confronting her husband’s paramour, the Queen intimidated fair Rosamund into taking poison, whereupon the despairing young woman died. Henry had her body buried, surrounded by gold and candles, in the local nunnery. Following Vanbrugh’s carelessness, all that now remains to remind us of Fair Rosamund is her well at Everswell.

Queen Eleanor actually has a strong alibi for her fairy story murder of Fair Rosamund. Henry’s mistress entered a nunnery in 1174 for reasons unknown and died there in 1176. Eleanor, who had fallen foul of her husband for supporting their sons in rebellion against the King, had been locked up by Henry at Winchester in 1174 and did not emerge from her gilded captivity for fifteen years, long after Rosamund had passed away.

[maudeboggins]

Photograph of Violet Vanbrugh, 19th c.

[quotesfrommyreading]

Considering all the upsides, where does the social climber’s bad rap come from? People who seek to improve their station in life have been the objects of suspicion or the butts of jokes since the dawn of social mobility itself.

Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, performed for King Louis XIV’s court in 1670, may feature popular culture’s first social climber. The play satirizes Monsieur Jourdain, the son of a rich merchant, whose aim in life is not to accumulate more wealth, but to be accepted by the aristocracy. The title itself is an oxymoron: A member of the middle class can never become a gentleman. A joke, but one of great comfort to the audience at court. Yes, they have more money than the rest of you here, but they will never have access to this room. These relationships.

By the close of the 17th century, aristocrats, merchants, and servants were crowding into theaters to see bawdy satires like John Vanbrugh’s The Relapse, in which a buffoonish Sir Novelty Fashion squanders his fortune purchasing the more impressive title of Lord Foppington. The joke had evolved: Okay, maybe they can access this room, but everyone (including the servants) knows they still can’t buy class.

In 1722, Daniel Defoe published Moll Flanders, about a woman who cons and sleeps her way into the middle class. Moll might have been seen as unscrupulously obsessed with improving her station in life, but as a widow with no social standing or means, she was also desperate. She wasn’t posing as a gentlewoman to get into great parties; she was climbing to survive.

The social climbers I’m talking about are more like Moll than Sir Novelty. Motivated by economic necessity, we see access as a means to an end, not as an end in itself. We would never squander money to get into the party; we get into the party so that other people might squander money on us.

The scorn for the climber is rich—literally. It isn’t that the wealthy don’t utilize social capital for advancement; they just do so quietly. Or, perhaps more accurately, it’s perceived as their right. Wealth, and the things it can procure—elite education, invitations to private clubs, stays at exclusive resorts—come with a cascade effect of trust, merited or not. “If you are in this space, you must be one of us.” This was precisely the genius of Shonda Rhimes’s series Inventing Anna. You get to watch the character discover—just by dropping the right name or stepping onto the right yacht—what people were willing to offer her. No questions asked.

  —  The New Case for Social Climbing

[petec9099]

Butterflies and Dragonflies in Greenwich

[cuartoretorno]

Exploring Castle Howard: The 10,000 Acre Home of Bridgerton | Houses with History 2023

[enjoyedbygod]

Castle Howard, Yorkshire (1699)

Although later Baroque in completion, the initial design by Vanbrugh reflected an interesting British adaptation of Renaissance principles.

Such a focus on grandeur and symmetry inspired the future of English country house designs.

[labuenosairesfrancaise]

Grimsthorpe Castle

Hi guys!!

I'm sharing another grand english state! 

House History:  The building was originally a small castle on the crest of a ridge on the road inland from the Lincolnshire fen edge towards the Great North Road. It is said to have been begun by Gilbert de Gant, Earl of Lincoln in the early 13th century. However, he was the first and last in this creation of the Earldom of Lincoln and he died in 1156. Gilbert's heyday was the peak time of castle building in England, during the Anarchy. It is quite possible that the castle was built around 1140. However, the tower at the south-east corner of the present building is usually said to have been part of the original castle and it is known as King John's Tower. The naming of King John's tower seems to have led to a misattribution of the castle's origin to his time.

Gilbert de Gant spent much of his life in the power of the Earl of Chester and Grimsthorpe is likely to have fallen into his hands in 1156 when Gilbert died, though the title 'Earl of Lincoln' reverted to the crown. In the next creation of the earldom, in 1217, it was Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester (1172–1232) who was ennobled with it. It seems that the title, if not the property was in the hands of King John during his reign; hence perhaps, the name of the tower.

During the last years of the Plantagenet kings of England, it was in the hands of Lord Lovell. He was a prominent supporter of Richard III. After Henry VII came to the throne, Lovell supported a rebellion to restore the earlier royal dynasty. The rebellion failed and Lovell's property was taken confiscated and given to a supporter of the Tudor Dynasty.[2]

The Tudor period

This grant by Henry VIII, Henry Tudor's son, to the 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby was made in 1516, together with the hand in marriage of Maria de Salinas, a Spanish lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon. Their daughter Katherine inherited the title and estate on the death of her father in 1526, when she was aged just seven. In 1533, she became the fourth wife of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, a close ally of Henry VIII. In 1539, Henry VIII granted Charles Suffolk the lands of the nearby suppressed Vaudey Abbey, founded in 1147, and he used its stone as building material for his new house. Suffolk set about extending and rebuilding his wife's house, and in only eighteen months it was ready for a visit in 1541 by King Henry, on his way to York to meet his nephew, James V of Scotland. In 1551, James's widow Mary of Guise also stayed at Grimsthorpe. The house stands on glacial till and it seems that the additions were hastily constructed. Substantial repairs were required later owing to the poor state of the foundations, but much of this Tudor house can still be seen today.

During Mary's reign the castle's owners, Katherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk (née Willoughby) and her second husband, Richard Bertie, were forced to leave it owing to their Anglican views. On Elizabeth's succeeding to the throne, they returned with their daughter, Susan, later Countess of Kent and their new son Peregrine, later the 13th Baron. He became a soldier and spent much of his time away from Grimsthorpe.

The Vanbrugh building

By 1707, when Grimsthorpe was illustrated in Britannia Illustrata, the 15th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and 3rd Earl Lindsey had rebuilt the north front of Grimsthorpe in the classical style. However, in 1715, Robert Bertie, the 16th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, employed Sir John Vanbrugh to design a Baroque front to the house to celebrate his ennoblement as the first Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. It is Vanbrugh's last masterpiece. He also prepared designs for the reconstruction of the other three ranges of the house, but they were not carried out. His proposed elevation for the south front was in the Palladian style, which was just coming into fashion, and is quite different from all of his built designs.

The North Front of Grimsthorpe as rebuilt by Vanbrugh, drawn in 1819. Vanbrugh's Stone Hall occupies the space between the columns on both floors.

Inside, the Vanbrugh hall is monumental with stone arcades all around at two levels. Arcaded screens at each end of the hall separate the hall from staircases, much like those at Audley End House and Castle Howard. The staircase is behind the hall screen and leads to the staterooms on the first floor. The State Dining Room occupies Vanbrugh's north-east tower, with its painted ceiling lit by a Venetian window. It contains the throne used by George IV at his Coronation Banquet, and a Regency giltwood throne and footstool used by Queen Victoria in the old House of Lords. There is also a walnut and parcel gilt chair and footstool made for the use of George III at Westminster. The King James and State Drawing Rooms have been redecorated over the centuries, and contain portraits by Reynolds and Van Dyck, European furniture, and yellow Soho Tapestries woven by Joshua Morris around 1730. The South Corridor contains thrones used by Prince Albert and Edward VII, as well as the desk on which Queen Victoria signed her coronation oath. A series of rooms follows in the Tudor east range, with recessed oriel windows and ornate ceilings. The Chinese drawing room has a splendidly rich ceiling and an 18th-century fan-vaulted oriel window. The walls are hung with Chinese wallpaper depicting birds amidst bamboo. The chapel is magnificent with superb 17th-century plasterwork.

More history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimsthorpe_Castle

This house fits a 64x64 lot and features several impressive rooms, more than 29 bedrooms, a servants hall and several state rooms!

I only decored some of the main rooms, for you to have a glimpse of the distribution. The rest is up to you, as I have stated that I do not like interiors :P

Be warned: I did not have the floor plan for the tudor rooms, thus, the distribution is based on my own decision and can not fit the real house :P.

You will need the usual CC I use: all of Felixandre, The Jim, SYB, Anachrosims, Regal Sims, TGS, The Golden Sanctuary, Dndr recolors, etc.

Please enjoy, comment if you like it and share pictures with me if you use my creations!

DOWNLOAD (Early acces: June 30) https://www.patreon.com/posts/grimsthorpe-101891128

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

The Fall

Vanbrugh College, York, England (1982-04-29)

© Ian Ellis

[thesixthduke]

[vintagestagehotties]

Round 1 Losers Highlights: Violet Vanbrugh

she was apparently "immensely tall" and idk something about the way she sits makes me want her to dominate me

[messrchase]

Growing slowly - Whitehall Palace

So cherry picking from two different designs by Wren and Hawksmoor is as fun as it is frustrating. I guess Jones is here too while Vanbrugh is silently shading influence from a quietly loud corner. Interiors no doubt to be provided by a talented team, especially @stereo-91

[richwall101]

Kings Weston House is a historic building in Kings Weston Lane, Kingsweston, Bristol, England. Built during the early 18th century, it was remodelled several times, the most recent in the mid-19th century. The building was owned by several generations of the Southwell family. By World War I, the house was used as a hospital and then later used as a school by the Bath University School of Architecture. The building is today used as a conference and wedding venue, as well as a communal residence.

The building was built between 1712 and 1719, and was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh for the lawyer and politician Edward Southwell on the site of an earlier Tudor house. It was then remodelled in 1763–1768 by Robert Mylne and again between 1845 and 1850 by Thomas Hopper. The Kings Weston estate possesses one of the largest collections of buildings designed by Sir John Vanbrugh in the UK. Whilst the house and the majority of the estate's buildings are still standing, others have been demolished or have been heavily altered. Bristol is the only UK city outside London to possess buildings designed by Vanbrugh. A significant architectural feature is the grouping of all the chimneys into a massive arcade.

[maudeboggins]

Photograph of Violet Vanbrugh, 19th c.