Charles Cameron (architect)
Charles Cameron | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1745 |
Died | 19 March 1812 (aged 66/67) |
Occupation | Architect |
Buildings | Main palace in Pavlovsk Cameron's Gallery and Cold Baths in Tsarskoye Selo |
Projects | Parks of Pavlovsk, Sophia and Tsarskoye Selo |
Charles Cameron (1745 – 19 March 1812) was a Scottish architect who made an illustrious career at the court of
Cameron's British neoclassicism was an isolated episode in Russian architecture, then dominated by Italian artists (
Early life
Details of Cameron’s origins are uncertain. He was probably the son of Walter Cameron, a London carpenter.[5] However, he claimed descent from the Camerons of Lochiel, a Scottish clan deeply involved in the Jacobite rising of 1745.[3]
Walter Cameron was certainly friendly with Dr Archibald Cameron, the last Jacobite to be executed and a brother of the chief
Early career
Cameron trained in London with his father and with the architect
Cameron's life between 1769 and his departure to Russia in 1779 remains barely known.
Arrival in Russia
Cameron arrived in Russia in 1779, also invited by Catherine's agents.[3] Exact details of Cameron's hire remain vague,[5] but on 23 August 1779 an enthusiastic Catherine wrote to Grimm that "At present I am very taken with Mr. Cameron, a Scot by nationality and a Jacobite, great draughtsman, well versed in antique monuments and well known for his book on the Baths of Rome. At the moment we are making a garden with him on a terrace..."[12] Catherine also wrote that Cameron was raised at the Roman court of Prince James Stuart ("James III and VIII") and that he was a nephew of Jean Cameron of Glendessary.[5] Cameron settled first in Chernyshev House in Saint Petersburg but soon moved to his own house in Tsarskoye Selo; it was later taken from him by emperor Paul.[2]
Cameron, a Londoner, had no practical experience in landscaping prior to 1779.[13] Peter Hayden suggested that Cameron learned the trade from his father-in-law, John Busch (anglicised Bush),[14] who worked in Tsarskoye Selo since 1771.[15]
Tsarskoye Selo
Cameron's career in Russia started with expansion of the Chinese Village in Tsarskoye Selo park, borrowing design ideas from William Chambers.[2] The theatre of Chinese Village had already been in place, designed by Antonio Rinaldi and Ivan Neelov;[16] Cameron's undisputed additions are the living quarters of the Village and the Chinese Bridges over the canal.[16] During Paul's reign Cameron's buildings were stripped of exterior finishes and later rebuilt by Vasily Stasov in 1817.[16]
In 1780–1784 he redecorated the formerly
Catherine had another specific task for Cameron: she envisaged a new, relatively modest Neoclassical building in
In the beginning of the Gallery project Cameron himself acted as Catherine's
Sophia
More historical allegories were scattered in the park: the lake with Rinaldi's rostral column represented the Black Sea;[25] Doric ruins symbolized the former might of Ancient Greece.[26] These follies, scattered along the road to Catherine Palace, doubled as the setting for triumphant procession for visiting dignitaries.[26]
Peter Hayden drew parallels between Cameron's landscaping in Sophia with that of
Pavlovsk
Pavlovsk, the largest landscape park in 18th century Russia (1,500 acres),[28] is attributed to a succession of architects, starting with Cameron and ending with Carlo Rossi.[28] Cameron built the original palace core that survives to date, the Temple of Friendship, Private Gardens, Aviary, Apollo Colonnade and the Lime Avenue and planned the original landscape, but true authorship of Pavlovsk as a whole should be credited to empress Maria Feodorovna.[28][29]
The Temple of Friendship was the first building in Pavlovsk, followed by the main palace.[28] Cameron's Pavlovsk was far from Paul's vision of what an imperial residence should be: it lacked moats, forts and all other military paraphernalia so dear to Paul; "Cameron created a markedly private world for the Grand Duke. The palace could have belonged to anyone... not to the tsar of Russia in waiting."[30]
Conflicts between Cameron and Paul and Maria date back to the couple's Grand Tour of Europe (1781–1782). Maria complained about Cameron's delays since 1782.[13] Constrained financially, Paul and Maria closely watched Cameron's progress and regularly curbed his far-reaching, expensive plans. Cameron also displayed signs of aversion to their management since 1782, but court intermediaries downplayed the conflict for a while. By 1785 it became public: Cameron quarreled with Paul over costs of Pavlovsk[3] and Paul himself detested Cameron as Catherine's agent.[31] Between 1786 and 1789[32] Cameron's duties in Pavlovsk passed to an Italian, Vincenzo Brenna, hired by Paul in 1782. Dismissed by Paul, Cameron continued working on Catherine's own projects until her death in 1796.
Retirement
Upon ascension to power in 1796, Paul fired Cameron from all his contracts and deprived him of his house in Tsarskoye.
Lukomsky also wrote that in 1800–1801 Cameron temporarily left Russia for England;[2] according to Colvin, this opinion is unsubstantiated:[3] in 1800–1801 Cameron worked in Pavlovsk, then owned by Maria Fyodorovna, where he built the Ionic Pavilion of Three Graces.[3]
Alexander, who succeeded Paul in March 1801, appointed Cameron the chief architect of the
Private life
Cameron's personality remains a "shadowy figure":[33] being "proud, aloof and difficult",[33] he had a talent for alienating people. He did not participate in the social life of the English diaspora in Saint Petersburg; he had few Russian friends,[33] did not speak Russian and was disliked for his attitude of "English superiority".[34]
In 1784 Cameron married Catherine Busch, daughter of the imperial gardener John Busch.[35] They had a daughter, Mary, however, her birth has not been evidenced by church records.[33] Mary Cameron, engaged to James Grange, left Russia in 1798.[1] Grange returned to Russia in 1803, and, according to Anthony Cross, could have helped Cameron's career revival in 1803–1805.[1] By 1839 the Granges had seven surviving children.[1]
During retirement Cameron and his wife lived in Paul's favourite palace,
References and notes
- ^ a b c d Cross 1997, p. 297
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lukomsky 1943, part 1
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Colvin 2008, p. 212
- ^ Colvin 2008, p. 213
- ^ a b c d e f g Cross 1997 p. 287
- ^ a b David Talbot Rice in his 1943 Introduction described the appearance of a modified Lochiel emblem used by Cameron and noted that "No Charles Cameron who went to Russia is, however, known in the records of the family. On the other hand, a certain Dr. Archibald Cameron had a number of sons, three of whom do not figure in the history of the family at home, and it is possible that Charles was one of these."
- ^ a b Cross 1997, p. 286
- ^ a b Hayden 2005, p. 90
- ^ a b c d e f Colvin 2008, p. 211
- ^ Shvidkovsky 2007, p. 257
- ^ Lukomsky 1943, part 1, cites the same fragment in the original French language.
- ^ English translation as in Shvidkovsky 2007, p. 258; see also English rendition in Lukomsky 1943, part I. Cross 1997 p. 286 and p. Colvin, p. 212, provide the same fragment of the original letter in French.
- ^ a b Hayden 2005, p. 117
- ^ Hayden 2005, p. 117. Hayden spells the surname Busch; Cross and Shvidkovsky spell it Bush.
- ^ Hayden 2005, p. 84
- ^ a b c Hayden 2005, p. 89
- ^ a b Lukomsky 1943, part 2
- ^ "Cameron's Baths" (in Russian). Tsarskoye Selo Museum and Reserve (official site). Archived from the original on 2009-05-03. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
- ^ Cross 1997, p. 288
- ^ Lukomsky 1943, part 2, states years of completion 1783–1785
- ^ "Cameron's Gallery" (in Russian). Tsarskoye Selo Museum and Reserve (official site). Archived from the original on 2009-05-08. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
- ^ a b Kuznetsov 1998, p. 213
- ^ Cross, 1997 p. 298
- ^ Hayden 2005, p.98
- ^ a b c d Hayden 2005, p. 92
- ^ a b Hayden 2005, p. 93
- ^ a b Hayden 2005, p. 94
- ^ a b c d Hayden 2005, p. 110
- ^ Hayden 2005, pp. 117-118, provides examples of Maria's 1782 instructions implemented through courtiers Baron Nicolay and Baron Kuchelbecker.
- ^ Shvidkovsky 2007, p. 281
- ^ Shvidkovsky 2007, p. 282
- ^ Shvidkovsky 2007, p. 284 and Hayden 2005, p. 120 date the year of Brenna's takeover as 1786. According to Lanceray, Cameron's influence in Pavlovsk lasted until 1789.
- ^ a b c d e f g Cross, p. 296
- ^ Lukomsky 1943, part 1: "nor did he find the same sympathy among his colleagues and collaborators. This was perhaps due to his ignorance of the language, or to what may have been taken as an attitude of "English superiority."
- ^ Cross 1997, p. 296. Hayden 2005, pp. 84-92, spells the same name as John Busch.
- ^ Lanceray 2006, p. 146
Sources
Biographies of Cameron
The first comprehensive English biography of Cameron was written by Georgy Lukomsky, veteran of Russian neoclassical revival school, and published in 1943 in England with introduction by David Talbot Rice. Nikolay Lanceray had compiled substantial material on Cameron earlier, in the 1920s. It was lost after his arrest, apart from the fragments used in his book on Vincenzo Brenna, first printed in 2006. In the last quarter of the 20th century Anthony Glenn Cross researched Cameron's life as part of the British diaspora in Saint Petersburg and tracked his family connections; John Martin Robinson contributed studies of Cameron's early career in England. A definitive modern biography of Cameron, The empress and the architect, was published by Dmitry Shvidkovsky in English in 1996 (most recent Russian edition: 2008). Cameron's concise biography in the fourth edition of Howard Colvin's Biographical Dictionary of British Architects cites all the English sources listed above.
- Howard Montagu Colvin (2008). A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840: Fourth Edition. Paul Mellon Ctr for Studies. pp. 211–213. ISBN 978-0-300-12508-5.
- Anthony Cross (1996-11-13). 'By the Banks of the Neva': Chapters from the Lives and Careers of the British in Eighteenth-Century Russia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-55293-6.
- Lukomsky, Georges (1943). Charles Cameron, Architect. An illustrated monograph. Alexander Palace Foundation. Also includes:
- Atchison, Bob (2005). "New foreword to Charles Cameron by Georgy Lukomsky". Archived from the original on 2008-12-21. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
- Rice, D. T. (1943). "Introduction to Charles Cameron by Georgy Lukomsky". Retrieved 2009-06-10.
- Dimitrij Olegovič Švidkovskij (1996). The Empress & the Architect: British Architecture and Gardens at the Court of Catherine the Great. ISBN 978-0-300-06564-0.
- Shvidkovsky, Dmitry (2008). Charles Cameron i arhitektura imperatorskikh rezidentsii (Чарлз Камерон и архитектура императорских резиденций) (in Russian). Moscow:Uley. ISBN 978-5-91529-003-6.
Biographies of contemporary artists
- Kuznetsov, S. O. (1998). "Adam Menelas na rossiyskoy zemle (Адам Менелас на российской земле. Возможные пути интерпретации творчества архитектора императора Николая I)" (PDF) (in Russian). The Philosophical Age. Almanac 6. Russia at the Time of Nicholas I: Science, Politics, Enlightenment. Ed. by T. Khartanovich, M. Mikeshin. St. Petersburg, 1998.[permanent dead link]
- Lanceray, Nikolay (2006). Vincenzo Brenna (Винченцо Бренна) (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Kolo. ISBN 5-901841-34-4. Also includes:
- Vityazeva, V. A., Modzalevskaya, M. A. (2006, in Russian) Istorik russkoy arhitektury Nikolay Lanceray (Историк русской культуры Николай Лансере)
Books on Russian architecture
- William Craft Brumfield (1997). Landmarks of Russian Architecture: A Photographic Survey. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-90-5699-537-9.
- James Cracraft; Daniel Daniel Bruce Rowland (2003). Architectures of Russian Identity: 1500 To the Present. ISBN 978-0-8014-8828-3.
- Peter Hayden (2005). Russian Parks And Gardens. Frances Lincoln Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7112-2430-8.
- Dmitriĭ Olegovich Shvidkovskiĭ (2007). Russian Architecture and the West. ISBN 978-0-300-10912-2.