The Sentimental Garden at Hotköc, the ‘Portrait ofth e Garden’, and the Portraitist

Abstract

The garden of the Csáky family at Hotkóc is a well-known representative of the so-called sentimental garden design,
and therefore has a significant role in the history of Hungárián landscape architecture. Numerous contemporary descriptions and drawings bear witness to this. The oil painting entitled ’Scenes from the Csáky Garden at Hotkóc' - often referred to as the 'garden portrait'- is one of these. The portraitist, János Rombauer. was an acknowledged painter both in Hungary, and Russia. This study presents the life and works of the painter first, then it moves on to examine the elements of the garden as depicted in the garden portrait. On the basis of the available descriptions and drawings, I try to reconstruct the piacé where these small garden structures used to be. Finally, the study attempts to assess the importance of the painting, comparing it with similar works of art, and alsó to two other portraits by the same painter, all of which are connected to the concept of sentimental gardens.