A View of the Wilderness, with the Alhambra, the Pagoda, and the Mosque. Etched and engraved plate in William Chambers (1723–1796)
Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings at Kew in Surry, the Seat of Her Royal Highness, the Princess Dowager of Wales.
London: Printed by J. Haberkorn . . . for the author, and . . . A. Millar [and nine others], 1763.
Gift of Henry S. Morgan, 1962
In 1757 William Chambers, the only architect in England to have directly observed East Asian architecture, began to design new gardens at Kew with artificial ruins and exotic structures. His famous pagoda represents the Chinese style on which he published two treatises. Chambers's discussion of Chinese gardens, some of which he classified as Romantic, promoted the idea of provoking powerful emotional responses through selected effects in landscape design: "the spectator is to be amused . . . his curiosity excited, and his mind agitated by a great variety of opposite passions." His work is the basis for the Continental European concept of the jardin anglo-chinois.