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  • image SM Adam volume 40/41

Reference number

SM Adam volume 40/41

Purpose

[16] Variant designs for a bridge, 1759-61, unexecuted

Aspect

Elevation of a bridge across a cascade set within a landscape, with a single segmental arch, rusticated and with a parapet of balustrading, and ornamented with roundels and a frieze of anthemia and strigils and an inscription tablet, resting on two piers containing sculpture-filled semicircular-headed niches, and surmounted by seated male sculptures, and with abutments ornamented with Vitruvian scroll, and terminating with pedestals supporting fluted columns

Scale

3 1/5 inches to 10 feet

Inscribed

Design of a Bridge for The Right Honourable The Lord Scarsdale Proposed to be Built / Over a Fall of Water fronting His Lordships House at Kedleston in Derbyshire / Span of the Arch 60 feet. Extent from Column to Column 190 feet (and in pencil in the hand of Arthur Bolton) See original sketch / Vol. 9.84 (verso) Bridge for Lord Scarsdale

Signed and dated

  • 1761
    Robt Adam. Architect / 1761

Medium and dimensions

Pen, pencil, wash and coloured washes including olive green and cerulean blue within a single ruled border on laid paper (1745 x 534)

Hand

Robert Adam

Notes

The frieze and balustrade across the arch, and upper portion of the piers are drawn on a separate sheet which has been affixed showing that the original drawing has been altered.

Literature

Bolton, 1922, Volume II, Index p. 19
Harris, 1987, p. 78
King, 2001, Volume II, p. 219
For a full list of literature references see scheme notes.

Level

Drawing

Exhibition history

In Pursuit of Antiquity: Drawings by the Giants of British Neo-Classicism, Sir John Soane's Museum, 1 February - 1 June 2008; Tchoban Foundation Museum für Architekturzeichnung, Berlin, 3 October 2015 - 14 February 2016

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