ANGLO-DUTCH SCHOOL (CIRCA 1740)VIEW OF A HOUSE WITH PROJECTING ANGLE PAVILIONS, IN A PARK WITH AN OVAL POOL, FIGURES IN THE FOREGROUNDOil on canvas139.7 x 180.3cm (55 x 70 in.)Provenance:Probably the Messel family collection at Nymans until the fire in 1947In the Drawing Room at Holmstead Manor and thence by descent to Oliver MesselPurchased from Oliver Messel by Frederick and Phyllis Baden Watkins for Flaxley AbbeyLiterature: J. Harris, The Artist and the Country House, London, 1979, p.212, pl.223, The present picture was in the collection of Colonel Leonard and Maud Messel in the Drawing Room at Holmstead Manor. It is likely that, like so much of the Messel collection, it was originally at Nymans and removed to Holmstead after the disastrous fire in 1947. After the death of his mother in 1960, Oliver Messel inherited the picture but later sold it between 1962 and 1966 to Frederick Baden-Watkins for the dining room at Flaxley Abbey.The artist and house remain unidentified, but John Harris dates the picture to the 1740's. He also suggests that the house, with it's four towers set at the angles of the square centre block, is a layout seen in some engraved plans by Sebastiano Serlio, although it was probably built in the 1670's and 80's. There is a passing similarity to Thirlestane Castle in the Scottish Borders, the seat of the Dukes of Lauderdale. There is no record of formal gardens and the castle was remodelled and enlarged in the 1840's by William Burn. Pentimenti in the centre of the pictures show that the artist originally included a carriage on the central avanue which was later removed.It is interesting to note that this picture was painted during, and appears to depict, the transition period when country houses were sweeping aside their formal Anglo-Dutch baroque canals, cascades and avenues and favouring visions of arcadia by implementing bucolic schemes of rolling parkland enacted and influenced by the work of William Kent and later Lancelot Capability Brown.