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Reference number

SM D1/11/23

Purpose

Coleorton, Leicestershire, 1802-08

Aspect

[53] Elevation of two-storey, three-bay S front
  • image SM D1/11/23

Scale

¼ in to 1 ft

Inscribed

dimensions given and (verso, Dance) Elevation / South Front

Signed and dated

  • 1802-08

Medium and dimensions

Pen, sepia, green earth and pink washes, pencil on laid paper (350 x 530)

Hand

Dance

Watermark

D & C Blauw IV

Notes

Three-light square-headed windows are drawn in over triple semi-circular-and segmental-headed windows. The labels are made deeper and more emphatic and seem almost like chujja (awnings or eaves in Indian architecture). Dance also experiments with the turret finials which include two in the form of miniature castle keeps as well as two in the Indian style of Ashburnham Place and the London gate at Stratton Park. For a discussion of the Indian elements of Dance's architecture see the note on the Guildhall, London.

Watkin ('Soane and his contemporaries' in John Soane, [no.ed.], 1983, p.56) discusses the abstract reductionist element in Soane's style and links it with Dance's architecture, in particular this drawing with its 'grid-like composition in which the wall has been entirely dissolved. As a daring example of what Dance proposed as "Architecture unshackled", it can be compared with Schinkel's project of 1827 for a bazaar in Unter den Linden, Berlin.'

Dance's south elevation for Coleorton can also be associated with his even more grid-like, unexecuted elevations for 6 St James's Square, Westminster. See also [SM D1/11/20].

REPRODUCED. Stroud fig.60a; D. Watkin, 'Soane and his contemporaries' in John Soane, [no ed.], 1983, fig.34.

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