Lansdowne House was designed by Robert Adam c.1761-8 for the 3rd Earl of Bute who sold it unfinished to Lord Shelbourne (from 1784, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne) in 1765 with an agreement that the house was to be completed to Adam's plans (drawings in the Soane Museum, especially Adam vol.39, 50-67; RIBA Drawings Collection SC 120/5/1: collection of drawings by Adam for Bute [later Lansdowne] House in the library at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute published by F. Russell, 1998; also The Works in architecture of the brothers Robert and James Adam, volume II, 1779, part III, plates 1-VIII). In fact the library, internally about 103 feet long and 29 feet wide and consisting of a central rectangle with what was intended to be an octagonal chamber at each end, remained a shell and further designs by four architects were made for it before Dance entered the scene.

Earlier designs by other architects
From 1772, designs were commissioned from Francesco Panini (for a gallery, not dated); Charles-Louis Clérisseau (for a library, dated 1774, Victoria and Albert Museum, Prints & Drawings Department, 9081); François Joseph Bélanger (for a gallery, dated 1779); and Joseph Bonomi (for a library, dated 1786, RIBA Drawings Collection SC 22/5 (1); and additionally, two drawings by Bonomi in the archives at Bowood, Wiltshire). None of these designs was carried out. The provenance of the drawings in the Soane Museum by Panini, Clérisseau and Bélanger is via Dance's collection, and it seems likely that he received the drawings from Lord Lansdowne.

A first design by Dance at Bowood
A.T. Bolton (Soane Museum curator 1917-1945) in the course of research for his book (1922) discovered an unpublished longitudinal section of a library by Dance in the archive at Bowood. Inscribed 'Lansdowne House' and signed 'G. Dance Junr', this section must have preceded the one catalogued here ([SM D3/3/5]). They are close, both having sliced off domes with lunettes, except that the centre part of the earlier design has a flat instead of a barrel-vaulted ceiling and the scheme of decoration is different. The domes have ribbing that give an umbrella-like effect as in the half-dome of the dining rooms at Pitzhanger or the domed Common Council Chamber at the Guildhall. The wall decoration is chaste with wreathed lyres in the spandrels of the alcoves to the apses. Surprisingly, Dance hangs red brocade curtains in front of Adam's existing three windows rising above bookcases 11 feet high up to 25 feet from the floor. Hung below a smart pleated pelmet with gold cresting, they would have required a special mechanism to draw them. Though interesting as an example of the upholsterer's art, the rich colour and excessiveness of the curtains are disturbing. Dance may have conceived the arrangement as architectural, the proportions of the four gathered curtains suggesting a tetrastyle portico.

Lighting
Like Dance's executed design, the preliminary design at Bowood differs from those by Panini et al. by dispensing with an order and having instead of conventional lighting, an elegantly conceived method of indirect lighting. Thus at each end of the barrel-vaulted centre was a raised three-quarter dome whose inward-looking vertical face was glazed; the light source would have been invisible from the middle part of the room. In fact, of the preceding designs, Panini had conventional windows in one wall; Clérisseau had an octangular lantern in each of the domed end rooms and an optional clerestory in the central part; Bélanger had a conical lantern in the central, deeply coved ceiling with a lunette over a door in each end room; Bonomi had a tall, roofed, octagonal lantern in each dome of the octagonal end rooms and a very large lunette in the main gallery. Dance's possession of drawings by three earlier architects seems not to have influenced his own design, which owes more to sources such as the domestic architecture of antique Rome, for example, the Villa Negroni (he owned some of the prints published from 1778) as well as contemporary French examples of gallery designs.

Dance's design executed
D. Stillman and E. Harris assume that Dance's design was not executed by him though partly adopted by Robert Smirke in 1819. However, Kalman's examination of the Lansdowne House accounts at Bowood shows that, for example, Tombling & Son were paid for the installation of the Egyptian chimney-piece from 5 June to 17 December 1790. Their work included 'Working and polishing two antique Egyptian statues and a basso relievo for a chimney piece in the library.... Taking down the bust of Minerva from the top of cabinet work in Blue Room and placing upon the chimney piece in the library, taking down again and replacing. Taking down some Egyptian heads, etc., from over doorway in the hall, fixing on the chimney piece, polishing do.etc.' (quoted Kalman p.374, n.41). Similarly, payments to Robert Smirke Senior in 1793 for 'painting 11 figures in the great library' and another to Biagio Rebecca for 'ornamental paintings' are also quoted (p.374, n.40). Stroud, on the evidence of A. T. Bolton's abstracts from the Lansdowne Papers, states that an account refers to 'work done... from the year 1788 to the year 1791 comprehending the alterations and decoration of the Great Library, Blue Room [third drawing room], Great Staircase and Hall of Entrance' that with the 'architect's fees' came to £2,942.17.11¾ (Stroud p.163). It seems safe to conclude that Dance's design was carried out though it did not last for very long.

Later history
After 1805, when Lansdowne's manuscripts collection had gone, on his death, to the British Museum, the library as such became redundant and in 1818 the 3rd Marquess commissioned Robert Smirke to change it into a sculpture gallery. Smirke totally redecorated the room though he did retain the great lunettes and the Egyptian chimney-piece. In 1935, Lansdowne House, severely truncated after its sale in 1929, became the Lansdowne Club, Smirke's gallery remaining though mutilated and stripped of its statuary. Except for the form of the barrel-vaulted ceiling, nothing remains of Dance's design - neither the three-quarter domes, nor the lunettes nor alcoves.

In about 1792, Dance also carried out minor alterations and additions to Bowood House for the 1st Marquess of Lansdowne. Dance's opinion of Lord Lansdowne was recorded by Farington in his diary (22 Aprl 1812): 'Dance spoke of the late Marquiss of Lansdowne, who was Prime Minister in 1782 & 3, having known Him well. The Marquiss studied to preserve the most even & complaisant manners & unruffled temper, and did to the world very much preserve that appearance, but in fact He had not that self-command, for He would to His Servants fly out in the most violent manner swearing & threatening, yet upon sudden appearance of a stranger would resume His smiles and courteous look. Dance said His Lordship had a great desire to make His House princely, and such as He had seen abroad, & did so in a great degree but He had no taste.'

LITERATURE. A. T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Vol.II, 1922, pp.1-17; D. Stillman, 'The Gallery for Lansdowne House', Art Bulletin, LII, 1970, pp.75-80: Kalman pp.210-15, 374-5; Stroud pp.163-5, 185; Soane: Connoisseur & collector, catalogue of an exhibition at the Soane Museum, 1995; I. C. Bristow, Architectural colour in British interiors 1615-1840, 1996, pp.166, 205-6; F. Russell, 'The House that became a hostage', Country Life, 19 October 1998, pp.64-7; E. Harris, The Genius of Robert Adam: his interiors, 2001, pp.112-31.

MANUSCRIPTS SOURCES. At the Soane Museum are abstracts from the Lansdowne Papers in the archives at Bowood made by A. T. Bolton before 1922, including information on Lansdowne House as well as Bowood. That quoted by Stroud (see above) has not been located but abstracts of other entries related to Dance are as follows: '1794.5.7.8 G. Dance £680 spent in minor matters / on which he charges £56.7.8 for himself - / 1793 appears item paid Mr Smirke 11 figures in Gt Library £50.00'. And from 'Chippendale' notes (sic) 'Dance Acct for work at Lansdowne House 1791-7 / apparently minor matters / 1792 Jan 11 £57.18.7 Eldorado sashes / 1793 £50 Mr Smirke for painting 11 figures in the Great Library / 2 Iron skylights. Steam apparatus &c / Dance charge £56.7.8'.