[72-80] Alternative sketch designs for the flank elevation, October 1794 (9)

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Office of Works
  - London: Palace of Westminster: designs for alterations and additions, 1793-1828 (499)
    - London: House of Lords, Palace of Westminster: official (mostly domeless) designs, July 1794 - February 1795 (134)

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Reference number

SM (72) 16/4/15 recto and verso (73) 16/4/13 recto and verso (74) 16/4/10 recto and verso (75) 16/4/14 (76) 16/4/11 recto and verso (77) 16/4/12 recto and verso (78) 16/4/16 (79) 16/4/17 recto and verso (80) 16/4/18 recto and verso

Purpose

[72-80] Alternative sketch designs for the flank elevation, October 1794 (9)

Aspect

72 This design has a three-storey, three-bay centre with four pairs of fluted Ionic columns, the three-bay attic storey has two windows, a tablet and fluted pilaster strips (lesenes) and supports statues at each end (verso, design labelled This N^o1) the three-bay wings have each an attic storey, the three-bay centre has four pairs of fluted Ionic columns supporting a Shallow pediment with statues on the acroteria 73 Design 'No 2' is close to drawing 72 recto but the three-bay wings have the door and window above recessed and framed by an Ionic column on each side and the centre has six single columns instead of four pairs, (verso) unfinished elevation has much the same centre as 72 recto but the door is round-arched and the lesenes are in pairs 74 Design 'No 3' is close to drawing 73 recto though the three-bay wings have four pilasters, the order is composite rather than the Ionic of all the other drawings (verso) section with profiles of mouldings 75 Close to drawing 73 recto except that the columns are not fluted 76 Close to drawing 74 recto though 'no break in Entab[lature]' marks a difference, a (pencil) detail for an embellished Ionic shows a preference for a composite order (verso) by contrast this (mostly pencil) elevation has the three-bay wings, the three-bay links and the wide three-bay centre, all of varying heights 77 As in drawing 76 a shared horizontal element (here an architrave) unites the fifteen-bay elevation, running behind the giant order of the wide three-bay centre at about two-thirds of the height of the columns, (verso) the unfinished elevation concentrates on the wide three-bay centre that now has a large storey-high, round arched entrance that together with six columns extended by dosserets and pilaster strips give this part of the front the appearance of a triumphal arch 78 Half-elevations of the wide three-bay centre and a rough (pencil) part-elevation contrast the treatment of the attic and of the skyline with, for example, a pediment with acroteria and statues, a balustrade, a balustrade with statues, an elongated pedestal with festoon and statues 79 Variant elevations show three-bay wings having each a large tablet and trophy, the wide three-bay centre with a giant order has four pairs of columns supporting an entablature and parapet, or, six single columns supporting a pediment; a rough (pencil) part-plan and small elevation offer further alternatives, (verso) slight (pencil) part-elevation and detail 80 Part-section with small part-plan added, vertical dimensions given: 13.6, 21.6, 21.8 and 32.6 and (plan) 15.0, (verso) incomplete plan for a new square House of Lords; the only other drawing to show a square plan is drawing 27 (36/4/25)

Scale

(72-80) to a scale

Inscribed

(72) (pencil) Q^y [Query] Pilast[ers] (verso, pencil) This N^o 1, (pen) Modiglion Cor[nice] (a cornice supported by modillions), with a / Ped.[iment] (73) (pencil) N^o 2, No Columns / nor / Pilasters (74) (pencil) This N^o 3 (75) (pencil, verso, title) Plan to render the House of Lords and the Rooms and Offices appertaining / thereto more commodious / Plan to Render the House of Lor (76) no break in Entab.[lature] and 1/8 diam[eter] (77) (pencil) This N^o 2 (78) omit the Ped^t (79) (pencil) Steps --- ---- (illegible) Thames, Q^y Make AB is there in / Break, Peace / & / Plenty, Hope / & / Unanimity (verso, pencil) Triumphal / Arch of / Titus or / Sept[imus] Severus (Arch of Titus in Rome A.D. 82, Septimus Severus also in Rome A.D. 203) (80) some dimensions given, (feint pencil) The Elevation to the River, (very feint pencil) a list numbered from 1 to 30 that is a list of rooms, mostly erased, for example Court of Requests, also (feint pencil, title) A Plan to render the House of Lords and the Rooms / and Offices appertaining thereto to more Commodious (verso) two rooms labelled Doorkeeper and Black Rod

Signed and dated

(75) Oct^r 13 1794 (twice) (76) (pencil) Oct^r 13 1794 (verso, pen) Oct^r 14 1794 (77) (pencil) Oct^r 13 1794 (78) Oct^r 15^th 1794

Medium and dimensions

(72) Pencil, pen, brown pen, sepia wash on thin laid paper (344 x 567) (verso) brown pen (73) pen, brown pen, sepia wash, pencil, red sealing wax top lefthand corner on thin laid paper (161 x 557) (verso) brown pen, hatching (74) pen, pencil, sepia wash, shaded on thin laid paper (169 x 520) (verso) pen and sepia wash (75) brown pen, hatching, pencil on thin laid paper (168 x 570) (76) brown pen, hatching, pencil on thin laid paper (165 x 560) (verso) pencil (77) pen, sepia wash, shaded, pencil on thin laid paper (167 x 527) (verso) pen, brown pen, hatching (78) pen, brown pen, sepia wash, shading, hatching, pencil on thin laid paper (345 x 562) (79) pen, pencil, sepia wash, shaded on stout wove paper (336 x 717) (verso) pencil with part of a multiple ruled border with black and sepia washes (80) brown pen and pencil, hatching on thin laid paper (345 x 568) (verso) pen, brown pen, pencil

Hand

(72-80) Soane and Frederick Meyer (1775-?, pupil April 1791-1796). Soane's office Day book for 13-15 October 1794 has the pupils Jeans (Thomas Jeans (c.1775-1866, pupil August 1792 - 25 August 1797), Meyer and Seward (Henry Hake Seward (1778-1846, pupil, assistant May 1794 - September 1808) as 'abt. drawings of House Lords' for 'The King'. It might be assumed that these drawings are by Soane and certainly the brown pen and pencil designs 72 verso, 73 verso, 75, 76, 76 verso, 77 verso, 78, 80) as well as the interventions and additions are by him. The pen and wash drawings were probably made by by Frederick Meyer, ~~a pupil from April 1791 to 1796 and~~ the most experienced of the trio.

Notes

All the designs for the flank elevation are 15-bays wide and have a rusticated basement with windows to each bay with (generally) a secondary door in the second and fourteenth bays. Bays 4-6 and 10-12 are stepped back, the wider three bays of the centre have an attic storey or, in four cases, a pediment. The order is Ionic, sometimes fluted, except for drawing 74 recto where a composite order is suggested. The drawings all seem to have been made on offcuts from larger drawings between 13th and 15th of October 1794 or thereabouts, largely by Soane but also by his most experienced pupil at that time - Frederick Meyer.

A comparison of elevations with plans shows that drawings 72, 73, 77,79 with a southwards (flank) elevation of 15 bays and four pairs of columns corresponds with (plans) 36 to 46 though the number of columns differs.

S. Sawyer, 'Soane in Westminster', PhD thesis, Columbia University, 1999, p. 191 drawings 72 -79, p. 192 drawings 75-78, p. 193 drawings 72 verso, 73, 75 and 76, versos of drawings 73, 77, 79, 79 recto.

Level

Drawing

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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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