Advance Information Sheet
FOLLIES OF EUROPE
Architectural Extravaganzas
Photographs by NIC BARLOW
Introduction by TIM KNOX
Text by CAROLINE HOLMES
As a genre the folly gave Europe a wonderful legacy of
idiosyncratic, sometimes experimental architecture. 'Follies of Europe' is a collection of photographs with accompanying text that illustrates the wealth and exuberance of follies, ranging from the Baroque and Rococo through Art Nouveau to the present day.
Follies were built for pleasure with passion and self indulgence.They reflect and celebrate the individuals who
created them. From the Sanssouci Palace and the Orangerie in Potsdam to Factor Cheval's Palais Idéal in Hauterives, these follies break every tenet of conventional architectural design and show a flamboyant disregard for popular taste. This book shows the dedication to detail that makes both the buildings and the personalities that created them evocative of a time of imagination, elegance and eccentricity.
From the moment Nic Barlow saw Le Palais Idéal he was fascinated by the subject of follies. Since then he has travelled extensively to photograph them—large and small, imposing and intimate—follies have become his passion.
NIC BARLOW's early work included a student project to record the real life of Eton College while studying Graphics at The Bath Academy of Art. This resulted in the first of his books, Eton Days (Lund Humphries), which was published in 1976. Nic's photographs have since appeared in The Sunday Times, The World of Interiors. Vogue Homes (France), Tatler, Harpers & Queen, the Telegraph Colour Magazine and Newsweek. His other books include: The Illustrated Mrs Beeton (Sheldrake Press), Happinesss Book (Pan), Celebration of Champagne (Mitchell Beazley), Border Ballads (Macmillan), Chatsworth: The Estate (Macmillan), Follies & Fantasies (Abrams) and Little-Known Museums In and Around London (Abrams).
TIM KNOX worked for the National Trust for England as their Architectural Historian. He was deeply involved in such diverse National Trust projects as the restoration of Stowe Landscape gardens, the acquisition of The Workhouse, a grim early nineteenth-century ‘house of industry’ at Southwell, Nottinghamshire, and the rescue of the Darnley Mausoleum in Cobham Park, Kent. He is a member of the Government’s Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art, and regularly writes and lectures on art, architecture and the history of collecting. Tim has the author of, and contributor to a long list of publications.
CAROLINE HOLMES is well established as a landscape gardener and lecturer. Her recent book Classical Gardens, illustrates how early eighteenth-century English designers used nature as an art form, drawing ultimately upon Rome for their inspiration, be it via Palladian architecture, Italian landscapes or the distant prospects captured by French painters such as Poussin and Lorrain, and the Italian Salvator Rosa. All offered an idealised view of the Classical Roman campagna. We examine the designs and functions of Roman and English landscape gardens such as Studley Royal, Chiswick, Stowe, Stourhead and Painshill.