[2] Letter sent by Soane to Thomas Pitt from Milan, August 1779

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Soane's architectural education: Royal Academy and Italy including measured drawings: 1770-1780
  - Soane's architectural education including theoretical designs made for the Royal Academy Schools and for exhibition at the Royal Academy, 1770-80, and in Italy, 1778-80
    - Designs for a 'Castello d'acqua', August 1779-1780, with later rough alternative designs by George Dance (10)

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Reference number

SM 42/182

Purpose

[2] Letter sent by Soane to Thomas Pitt from Milan, August 1779

Aspect

Letter (see below)

Inscribed

Milan Aug^stthe [blank] 1779 / Dear Sir / I did myself the honor of writing to you from Rome, enclosing / a sketch of your house in London, which I hope you have rec^d, and that it / found you in a much stronger state of Body than you had when I left Naples. / I am flatter'd by the friendship you have honor'd me with, of not being / too intrusive by informing you of my Conduct. M^rBurdon, for whose / friendship I can never be sufficiently grateful having brought me with / him to Parma, I informed myself of the subject for the Premium / in Architecture ^^{to be}given by the Royal Academy of this place in 1780 (May) / for which I wish to become a candidate if it meets with your approbation. / I have therefore taken the liberty of enclosing you two designs for "Un / Castello d'acqua decorato d'una pubblica fontana. Si domandano il Piano / l'Elevazione, e lo Spaccato d'un Serbatojo d'acque, che in grandissima / copia si supporranno in esso raccolte per comodo, ed ornamento d'una / Metropoli. La facciata adunque di questo edifizio sara posta nel fondo / d'una larga piazza, ed ornerassi con tutta la magnificenza di una / pubblica Fontana, che si vedra divisa in piu polle scaturire da Statue, / da Rupi, o da animali, come vorra la fantasia dell'Architetto, che / rappresentando qualche Favola, o qualche Istoria piu distinguersi / nell'invenzione. Si vuole ezandio un alloggia unito al Serbatojo / per gli Idraulici, e Custodi dell'Edificio." I must beg leave to request / your assistance to point out the most exceptionable parts & to inform / me if I have conceived it in any degree agreeable to the proposition /
(continued on the verso) if you should think my request unfair, I wish you to know that I then cease / to desire your Ideas on the subject, tho most sensible of the want of / your assistance. I must confess the subject is entirely new to me & that / I am very doubtful of the propriety of my Idea's respecting it. / I hope to have the honor of seeing you again before you leave Italy / but least I should not permit me to express my desire of hearing from / you at Florence, if it is convenient by the latter end of September. / I am afraid it is hurrying you, but I cannot think doing any thing / further till I know ^^wether if it will meet with your favourable opinion. / M^rBurdon desires his Complim^ts & give me leave to trouble you / with best respect to Lord Tylney & M^r Pennington, & accept of my / hearty wishes for the perfect re-establishment of your health, / I have the honor to be, / With the greatest respect / your much oblidged h[um]ble Serv^t / J. Soan / I must trouble you to enclose me this letter / as the Sketches contain'd in it are the first / Ideas, of which time will not allow me to / take Copies, I have only to wish to have the / honor of hearing from you, at Florence, / a la Posta restante, which will determine / my future plan, & to express my hopes of not / breaking in too much on your repose.

Signed and dated

as above (J. Soan) and (August 1779)

Medium and dimensions

Brown pen on half-sheet of secretary paper with four fold marks (224 x 185)

Hand

Soane

Watermark

IV (shared)

Notes

It seems that Soane's sketch designs and letters were sent to Thomas Pitt, nephew of the recently deceased Earl of Chatham. Pitt arrived in Rome, early in December 1778. He was an accomplished amateur architect and became a life-long friend to Soane. Both travelled to Naples in the winter of 1778 and there Pitt became ill and stayed for some months.

Literature

P. du Prey, John Soane's architectural education 1753-80, 1977, pp.243-54
P. du Prey, John Soane: the making of an architect, 1982, pp.110-11, 177-84

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

Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.

Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).