Repton Revealed

On the bicentenary of Humphry Repton’s death, this exhibition celebrated his rare and beautiful Red Books and charted his career through watercolours and manuscripts, many never publicly displayed before.

Twenty-four Red Books—so named for their red leather bindings—were reunited, the largest gathering in 25 years. Devised as ingenious marketing tools, each book showed a client’s garden “as is” in delicate watercolour, then revealed, via lift-the-flap overlays, Repton’s proposed design: trees rose or fell, streams became lakes, farms became parks, and, in the Sundridge Park Red Book, a house was replaced with a grander manor. Repton interspersed images with conversational notes recalling walks with owners, mixing compliments with criticism of predecessors. The exhibition also explored his late start in landscape design at 36, and his continued practice after a carriage accident left him using a wheelchair.