The Gorgeous Nothings
Flowers at Chatsworth
Collection of Flower Pyramids and Campana Shaped Vases in the Great Chamber.
500 years of history was tangible at Chatsworth earlier this month, as sleepy public rooms were woken with incense and the first steady traipse of visitors’ feet. Were their footfall and voices enough to exorcise the ghosts of the house which may have returned to familiar spaces for a quiet winter snooze.
Delft flower pyramids grouped in the fireplace in the State Bedchamber at Chatsworth. © The Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees.
Anna Atkins Sargassum © The Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth.
Christoph Jacob Trew © The Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth.
Sister (Hut) by Chiara Camoni in the Painted Hall.
The Gorgeous Nothings: Flowers at Chatsworth heralds the spring, supplanting winter with a celebration of all things floral. Allegra Pesenti, the show’s curator invited the bright stars of today’s art world, including Liza Lou, Elliot Hundley, Alesandro Piangiamore and Ana Prvacki into the house to mingle with the family’s extensive collection. The familiar and new intertwine momentarily, will a few of the pieces grow tendrils and take root in the collection?
Chatsworth is lovely, the first view of the house with its golden windowsills perfectly positioned in the Capability Brown landscaped park; the immaculately conceived eighteenth-century ‘hyper-reality’ of the English countryside, is always so reassuring. Home to passionate collectors, each generation of the Cavendish family has added to the “Devonshire” Collection and Allegra Pesenti’s curatorial conceit of gathering makes perfect sense.
Objects and artworks with floral themes have been selected from the extensive collection and contemporary works from artists and museums have been invited; like interesting guests at a house party, to make things more fun. The outcome is eclectic, surprising and, delightful. Floral mythology with a twist, and uncomfortable curatorial themes confront visitors in what might be construed as a “heritage” heartland.
Still life of flowers on a stone ledge with a monkey, Jakob Bogdany © The Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees.
Rebecca Fallow with Foxglove by Dorothy Cross on the Mercury Landing at Chatsworth.
Art world star Dorothy Cross’s Foxgloves with petals moulded out of fingers can be found reaching for light on the staircase landing hall and the throbbing colours of Frank Bowling’s glorious neon works pulsate in dialogue with the Dutch still lives and painted ceilings.
Is there a mildly surreal subtext, almost certainly, but isn’t that the point. Dresses with impossibly tiny waists and ghostly wedding veils meet Eileen Agar’s Magician (kindly loaned by Tate), Van Dyke style lace collars, and embroidered Gucci Couture are exhibited against the backdrop of the family’s Rembrandt. There is a certain sense that whatever is on show is just the tip of the iceberg.
Pink Butterfly, Bug Evening Gown designed for Duchess Amanda by Alessandro Michele for Gucci.
Still Lifes displayed on the Chapel Corridor, Nurseryman’s manuscript catalogue of carnations, containing petals of 477 varieties in watercolour.
Still Lifes displayed on the Chapel Corridor, Tree peonies by Emma Tennant.
Most beguiling of all are the treasures from the magnificent library and special collection in the form of herbariums briefly glanced at through glass cases, they inspire a longing to know more.
The exquisite “A Curious Herbal, Containing Five Hundred Cuts of the Most Useful Plants Which Are Now Used in the Practice of Physick” by the long dead unknown Elizabeth Blackwell, 1737-1739 momentarily comes alive again. Her theme is hauntingly reversed by the bloody contemporary interpretation of the myth Hyacinth. The Nurseryman’s Manuscript Catalogue of Carnations Containing Petals of 477 Varieties in Watercolour is immaculate and entrancing, but the abortive nature of peacock flowers in the following room reveals the shadow side of flower power.
© White silk orchid hat designed by Philip Treacy.
In other glass cases the painstaking diligence of the past combined with the exhaustive repetitive nature of Linnaean classification give rise to wonder, and memories of deathly dull hours in the biology lab. Did John Scott, who in 1850 collected 1500 varieties of moss and classified them on a series of now faded cards, know that his labour of love would many years later compare so favourably to a contemporary art installation? (The fact Scott went on to be the keeper of the botanical collection in Calcutta gives an indication of how important the gardens at Chatsworth were in the nineteenth century.)
Emma Tennant, Rosa hugonis, Copyright Hermitage Rugs.
Emma Tennant, Camellia japonica, Tricolor, Copyright Hermitage Rugs.
Emma Tennant, Rhododendron barbatum, Copyright Hermitage Rugs.
Generations of famous Cavendish’s fill the space and the future is also present in the form of a painting of orchids by Cecily Lasnet, (great niece of the current Duke, her Grandmother Emma’s wonderful work is also included). A considered choice which makes a clever reference to perhaps the biggest floral theme of all, Chatsworth is also home to huge dynastic Orchid collection and these live exhibits of rare and exquisite orchid’s bring another layer of curiosity to the exhibition.
Great Dining Room.
Hyacinthus by Elliott Hundley in the Chapel.
Collected by William Cavendish the Sixth Duke (1790 – 1858) a collector so passionate about these blooms that his condition was described as Orchidelirium. The bachelor Duke started out pursuing the plants at home, firstly settling his 300 genus-type collection in a monumental conservatory designed by Joseph Paxton. Ultimately, this was not enough to quash his appetite, and later, he sent 19-year-old John Gibson to India to find thousands more and plants were carefully transported back to Chatsworth. It is incredible, and a little uncanny, to realise that the orchids carefully arranged around the house, are not simple house plants but direct descendants of the flowers which formed the original collection, their genus types and breeding as carefully mapped out, as the Cavendish’s themselves.
Portraits displayed illustrating A Flower is a Symbol in the Sculpture Gallery.
The Madonna della Rosa by Domenichino in the Library.
Text - Sarah Hyde @babysarah19
Pictures © India Hobson, courtesy Chatsworth House Trust
The Gorgeous Nothings: Flowers at Chatsworth
A new exhibition in the house and garden at Chatsworth
15 March – 6 October 2025
@ChatsworthOfficial
www.chatsworth.org