[44] Design for an altarpiece for St John’s, Bethnal Green, London, 28 September 1827

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Churches and chapels
  - London: Church of St John on Bethnal Green, London 1824-28 (66)
    - Designs for the altarpiece, St John's, Bethnal Green, London, September-October 1827 [6]

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Reference number

SM 47/5/31

Purpose

[44] Design for an altarpiece for St John’s, Bethnal Green, London, 28 September 1827

Aspect

Elevation of an altarpiece for the church, divided by columns with three small pediments above, the central one has a carved motif of a dove with irradiationin the centre of the tympanum. Three panels at the rear have from left to right: the Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments, and Apostles' Creed. The Communion Table is in front, and the three rear windows of the church are behind. Below is a plan for the altarpiece, and beneath is a faded pencil design for the top of a column with capital, and to the right are possibly three strigils

Scale

bar scale of 2³/₄inches to 5 feet

Inscribed

Bethnal Green Chapel / [qr.?] Balusters, or Iron Railing, / Level of Floor of Church / Our Father / I / II / III / IV / V / VI / VI / VIII / IX / X / I BELIEVE and some measurements given

Signed and dated

28 September 1827
28 Sep^r1827.

Medium and dimensions

Pencil, pen, wash, coloured washes of brown and pink, on laid paper (488 x 298)

Hand

Probably Stephen Burchell (1806 - c.1843), draughtsman
The Soane Office Day book has no one working on the altarpiece on the 28 September 1827, but on 29 September 1827, Burchell is recorded as working on the altarpiece for Bethnal Green Chapel

Verso

Faded pencil designs for unknown subjects, below is perhaps the base of a column, and above are some designs for strigilated balusters

Watermark

CANSELL / 1824

Level

Drawing

If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk

Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.

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