The garden today is essentially the garden that was designed and laid out by Sir George Sitwell from 1886-1889.
He populated it with statues acquired on his many tours of Italy and this collection has been added to by his son Sir Osbert and the current owners, Sir Reresby and Lady Sitwell. Sir Reresby inherited Renishaw from Sir Sacheverell (Osbert’s brother).
In his book On the Making of Gardens Sir George has much to say about the use of sculpture in the garden:
Let sculpture add yet another appeal to emotion, and the pleasure stirred by beauty in a garden may rise from massive to acute. It is not only that the statues will set off the garden; we have to consider also that the garden will set off the statues, crowning them with a garland of beauty they could not have elsewhere.
Statuary proclaiming the imaginative ideal may strink in the garden a keynote of wonder and romance…and for this reason sculpture in a garden is to be regarded not as an ornament but almost as a necessity.Statues of marble seldom look well in Italy, never in England, and of all discords, none can be so jarring as to place among the flowers dreadful forms of disease and suffering, cripples or beggars. Art, like laughter, should be the language of happiness and those who suffer should be silent.
No statue, however bad, should be condemned to a desolate old age. In a decorative landscape the figures are never happy unless they are enjoying themselves and in a portrait even ugliness is rendered charming by the presence of a child, a dog or bird. Diana in a garden should not be without her hound, nor Neptune without his sea monster; Mars should be mated with Venus, Flora with Vertumnus, Cupid with Psyche; every Amazon should have her warrior and every nymph her satyr.
The two most important statues acquired by Sir George are indeed those of Diana and Neptune, said to be the work of Caligari, friend and contemporary of Tiepolo (1696 –1770). They are placed in the centre of the garden at the southern edge of the Middle Lawn. They do not face the Hall but gaze out of the garden, drawing the eye to the views of nature beyond.
Also on this central axis of the garden looking out are the Two Giants, sculpted from a soft white stone and brought from Italy by Sir George.
Walking from the Hall to the centre of the Middle Lawn one catches glimpses to the left and right of two fountains. Giving the lie to Sir George’s claims that marble never looks good in England these are of Veronese marble which turns from dull grey to outrageous pink under every shower of rain. Their shape, resembling candles in their holders has given them their gardener’s names of First and Second candle.
In the ballroom garden there is another statue of Neptune in stone mounted on a Veronese marble basin. His whiskered features remind Sir Reresby of his grandfather, Sir George.
On the eastern edge of the garden Warrior and Amazon guard the entrance to Broxhill Wood, although it has been suggested that they should be more properly titled Athena and Achilles. The Warrior is Sir George’s final large statue in the garden, perched alone at the eastern end of the Bottom Terrace, now alas without his sword.
John Piper saw fit to paint the portrait of Amazon, his artistic licence bringing the figures closer together than they really are.
Sir Osbert’s sole contribution to the sculpture of the garden is the Victorian statue, the Angel of Fame by Sir Hamo Thorneycroft (1850 – 1925). Sir Osbert placed it on the western edge of the garden where it became overwhelmed by rhododendrons. Rediscovered in the 1980s, and given a pedestal at the end of the Lime Avenue, she was gilded by Lady Sitwell in 2002, and now has one of the finest views of the garden.
The Spanish sculptress, and great friend of the Sitwells, Fiore de Henriquez (1921 – 2004), has contributed the greatest number of statues to the garden. In the north east corner is the 1965 sculpture Oceanic Flower. Across the garden on the Top Lawn is a lifesize bronze of the cellist Amarylis Flemming and on the other side of the Bothy Wall are two abstract bronzes, Tree and Flying Fish, shipped over from the US in 2005.
In Broxhill Wood at the end of the Holly Walk is the resin sculpture The Policeman, the last major work of Ivor Roberts Jones (1913 – 1996). A bronze taken from this stands at Hendon Police College, a memorial to all those officers who perished in the Kings Cross underground fire.
Close by in Broxhill Wood Pandora stands in the classical temple at the end of the Camellia Walk. Although timeless in appearance, these are recent additions to the garden, the temple arriving in the 1980s, Pandora herself not until 2000.
In the stable yard, is the fountain Aspiration by David Backhouse. This triumvirate of naked women originally graced the foyer of the Nat West tower in the City of London. The building was extensively damaged by an IRA bomb in 1993 and after rebuilding, a new home had to be found for the statue. It arrived at Renishaw in 2002.
The most recent commissions at Renishaw were for the Childrens’ Walk in 2007. Local chainsaw sculptresses, Lorraine Botterill and Lea Torp Nielsen, contributing the storyteller’s seat and tree carvings respectively. Lorraine’s sheep family has also arrived this winter and we are looking forward to hosting an exhibition of the work of these two artists in June/July 2009.
Other sculptures on loan to Renishaw are
Arab horse trotting by Sally Arnup, Carrying the Afghan Hound by John Mills,
Venus du Lac and Short cut draw blood by Richard Swain, and Leaf Memory by Steven Duncan.
