Our Patch summer 2017
LOOKING
BACK
Lady Burlington’s portrait
by William Aikman
Chiswick house
T
he first lady of Chiswick
House, Lady Burlington,
keeps a watchful eye from
the wall of her bedchamber.
Born in 1699, Dorothy
Savile married Richard Boyle,
Earl of Burlington, in 1721. The union
was to inspire them both.
The designer William Kent and the
poet Alexander Pope were delighted
with the match.
Pope wrote to Lord Burlington: “I
hope she paints, I hope you build,”
while Kent expressed the wish that
“architecture will flourish”. Neither was
disappointed.
Lord Burlington is famous as the
“architect Earl” of Chiswick House, who
inspired his generation. Yet his wife’s
story is less frequently told. Together,
they were patrons of George Frideric
Handel (who is celebrated with concerts
c h i sw i c k
in the House on 14 and 15 June this
year) and the actor David Garrick.
A gifted portrait artist and talented
caricaturist, Lady Burlington was, for a
decade, one of Queen Caroline’s ladies
of the bedchamber; this inspired many
of her sketches.
The Burlingtons' marriage is
celebrated in their interlinked initials in
the Blue Velvet Room’s cornicing and
in a famously informal, loving portrait
which now hangs in the Red Velvet
Room.
Lady Burlington supported
her husband’s design work by
commissioning Kent’s ceiling painting
in her Summer Parlour, which includes
owl motifs from the Savile family crest.
‘Kentino’, as he was nicknamed, also
designed the hangings for her four-
poster bed. She advised against use of
velvet to cover cushions, as it left the
impression of sitters' bottoms! “In any
velvet that is much used, there will be
always the print of people’s sitting,” she
wrote.
“Lord Burlington changed the face
of British and American architecture,
setting the trend for neo-Palladian
design that came to define the Georgian
period,” said Chiswick House &
Gardens Trust director Clare O’Brien.
“Lady Burlington had a huge
influence on Chiswick House, its design
and decoration. Today we are privileged
to be able to enjoy the fruits of both
their labours in this most exquisite of
England’s country estates.”
Lady Burlington died soon after
her 59th birthday. Savile Row, home
of London tailoring, was named after
her. Visitors can see her painting of her
daughter in the Red Closet at Chiswick
House.