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East India House, Leadenhall Street, City of London, c.1796
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George Dance, London, Leadenhall Street, East India House. SM 13/6/1. ©Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Photo: Ardon Bar-Hama
Reference number
SM 13/6/1
Purpose
East India House, Leadenhall Street, City of London, c.1796
Aspect
[1] Preliminary elevation of principal front
Scale
to a scale
Signed and dated
- c.1796
Medium and dimensions
Brown pen and warm sepia wash, pencil, shaded, hatching, partly pricked for transfer on thin buff-coloured laid paper (170 x 500)
Hand
Dance
Notes
The effect of this drawing, made freehand over pencil outlines, is of an apparently spontaneous act of design.
The building is 15 bays wide and three storeys high, arranged in a tripartite composition five by five by five with a giant Corinthian order. In the centre is a six-column pedimented portico, the tympanum of which is bare, the frieze undecorated and the wall behind left plain. Either side, the five end bays are fronted by an attached Corinthian order with festoons hanging between the capitals and above, the upper storey has an attic order and balustrade. The ground floor is arcaded, the windows on the first floor have square heads.
The semi-Palladianism of Dance's front is probably due to the influence of the earlier building by Theodore Jacobsen, built 1726-9 and kept as the west wing. The visible attic is the most characteristic part of Dance's elevation; panel pilasters continue the vertical emphasis of the giant order and above these the pedestals of the balustrade are stopped by antefixae. The area around the pediment is unresolved with pencil indications of panel pilasters.
REPRODUCED. D. Stillman, English Neo-classical architecture, 1988, fig.299.
The building is 15 bays wide and three storeys high, arranged in a tripartite composition five by five by five with a giant Corinthian order. In the centre is a six-column pedimented portico, the tympanum of which is bare, the frieze undecorated and the wall behind left plain. Either side, the five end bays are fronted by an attached Corinthian order with festoons hanging between the capitals and above, the upper storey has an attic order and balustrade. The ground floor is arcaded, the windows on the first floor have square heads.
The semi-Palladianism of Dance's front is probably due to the influence of the earlier building by Theodore Jacobsen, built 1726-9 and kept as the west wing. The visible attic is the most characteristic part of Dance's elevation; panel pilasters continue the vertical emphasis of the giant order and above these the pedestals of the balustrade are stopped by antefixae. The area around the pediment is unresolved with pencil indications of panel pilasters.
REPRODUCED. D. Stillman, English Neo-classical architecture, 1988, fig.299.
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk