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[1] Record drawing
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- Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
Reference number
SM 45/1/26
Purpose
[1] Record drawing
Aspect
Ground plan showing a forecourt with semicircular colonnade, gates and lodges; wide stairs front the plan of the principal floor, and beyond is a garden with a pavilion and Coach Yard etc; the site measures 120 feet wide by 500 feet deep
Scale
bar scale of 1/30in to 1ft
Inscribed
titled (by George Bailey, curator 1837-60): General Plan of a Design for a Nobleman's Mansion
Signed and dated
- datable to 1774
Medium and dimensions
Pen and sepia washes on laid paper (729 x 512)
Hand
pupil
Watermark
Edmeades & Pine with fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche with GR below
Notes
The subject set for the Royal Academy's Gold Medal in 1772 (sic) was for a 'Noblemans Town House & Offices, upon a Spot of Ground 120 feet wide & 500 Deep consisting of Plans of the different Stories, with the names & Dimensions of the several Rooms: an Elevation of the principal Front & a Section shewing the interior Decoration' . (R.A. Council Minutes, 11 January 1772, quoted du Prey, 1977, op.cit., p.69).
No entries were sent in and the same subject was set in 1774 with the added inducement of scholarships to Italy or Greece. The two-stage examination (see Design for a Temple of Mars) was passed by three students, among them Soane. He, however, got only one out of seventeen votes and thus came a very poor third. In the 1775 Royal Academy annual exhibition, Soane exhibited an 'Elevation for a town house' and a 'Section through the hall' and these must relate to the set of drawings for the 1774 competition. They have not survived and the drawings catalogued above are copies or record drawings by an unidentified pupil, presumably made from the originals, probably in the 1790s (watermark).
Soane's design was for a nine-bay house with 12 giant engaged columns on the front. Internally, there is a double-return stair, an elliptical, top-lit tribune and the back has a bow at each end.
Jill Lever
No entries were sent in and the same subject was set in 1774 with the added inducement of scholarships to Italy or Greece. The two-stage examination (see Design for a Temple of Mars) was passed by three students, among them Soane. He, however, got only one out of seventeen votes and thus came a very poor third. In the 1775 Royal Academy annual exhibition, Soane exhibited an 'Elevation for a town house' and a 'Section through the hall' and these must relate to the set of drawings for the 1774 competition. They have not survived and the drawings catalogued above are copies or record drawings by an unidentified pupil, presumably made from the originals, probably in the 1790s (watermark).
Soane's design was for a nine-bay house with 12 giant engaged columns on the front. Internally, there is a double-return stair, an elliptical, top-lit tribune and the back has a bow at each end.
Jill Lever
Literature
P. du Prey, John Soane’s architectural education 1753-80, 1977, pp.69, 72-5
P. du Prey, John Soane: the making of an architect, 1982, pp.74-6
P. du Prey, John Soane: the making of an architect, 1982, pp.74-6
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