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  • image SM 6/4/10

Reference number

SM 6/4/10

Purpose

[36] Design by Soane for west front to library

Aspect

Elevation

Inscribed

W R Cartwright Esqre / Aynho

Signed and dated

  • 20/04/1800

Medium and dimensions

Brown pen, pencil, hatching on wove paper (331 x 565)

Hand

Sir John Soane RA (1753 - 1837)

Notes

A two storey elevation with pediment. Six pilasters divide the front vertically into five un-equal bays. In the centre, an added (pencil) niche between two narrowly spaced pilasters, either side are round headed doors and at each end a square-headed niche. The three centre bays of the upper storey are crowned by a pediment. The upper storey has two window and two, square and sunk tablets.
Ptolemy Dean writes of this elevation: 'Ingeniously, in Soane's rebuilding [of Thomas Archer's elevation] the central band of masonry was split into two, creating a central recess in effect a third bay. The handling of line and plane in the ashlar stonework is especially sympathetic towards the effects of light and shade and are, in their way, amongst Soane's finest elevations anywhere.' P.Dean, Sir John Soane and the country estate, 1999, p.84.

Soane worked on the drawings [36] to [38] on a Sunday.

Level

Drawing

Exhibition history

Soane Revisited, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, March - August 1996

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