Inscribed
1 The genius of Britain seated in her Triumphal carr / preceded by the City of London with her attendants Commerce & Liberality
2 as above, - the emblematical / figure of the city of London receiving him at the porch
3 as above, Britannia beholding his / recovery with gratitude - attended by the figure / of hope, the boys above, Love & Loyalty
4 as above, surrounded with the genus genius ? see drawing 1 of plenty. The figures encircling / the carr are the City of London & the other principal / cities most conspicuous for this Loyal address
5 as above, or Fame unveiling the medalion sic ? of his Majesty & Immortality / inscribing his name, (capitals) George / III
Signed and dated
Hand
(1-5) William Hamilton (1751-1801)
Notes
William Hamilton designed the transparent paintings for the Bank's illuminations in celebration of King George III's recovery from illness. Drawing 6 shows only one of these paintings (derived from drawing 1) on display on the front of the Bank. The allegorical images could be a sequence that was intended to be displayed, or alternative images to be presented to Soane for his design. William Hamilton was a member of the Royal Academy and exhibited there from 1774 to 1801.
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
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.
Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of
Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and
fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing
process).
