Sckell, Friedrich Ludwig von

Sckell, Friedrich Ludwig von (1750–1823). German landscape-architect, son of the landscape-gardener Wilhelm Sckell (1722–92), who served the Elector Palatine Karl Theodor (1743–99) at Schwetzingen. Having been granted an Electoral stipend to enable him to travel, on his return young Sckell laid out (1777–85) the peripheral parts of the gardens at Schwetzingen in the English style: most of the fabriques, however, including the famous ‘Mosque’, were designed by Pigage. When Karl Theodor became Elector of Bavaria in 1777, Sckell was summoned to Munich, where he was appointed Court Gardener (1792) and Director of Horticulture (1799). From 1804 he redesigned the Hofgarten (Court Garden) and the gardens at Schloss Nymphenburg (although he retained the powerful central Baroque axes). He is best-known for the huge Englischer Garten (English Garden), Munich, the first garden designed as a public park, which was established on the recommendation of Rumford from 1789: the pools, Monopteros Hill, and streams were all his ideas, and the extensions northwards are based on his plans. Unfortunately, his intended links with the Hofgarten were disrupted by building. Other works included the promenades laid out on the site of the fortifications at Mannheim (1790s), and several parks and gardens in the Rhineland and Bavaria. Influenced first by Capability Brown, and then by Hirschfeld (although he seems to have eschewed the latter's enthusiasm for exotic fabriques, monuments, and sentimental associations), he published his Beiträge zur bildenden Gartenkunst für angehende Gartenkünstler und Gartenliebhaber (Contributions to the art of Garden Design for budding Horticulturists and Garden Lovers—1818), which bears small resemblance to his executed designs.

Bibliography

Buttlar (1982, 1989);
Dombart (1972);
Hanwacker (1992)