Explore Collections
You are here:
CollectionsOnline
/
London: Parliament House (designs for). Unfinished design for the elevation of the lower part of a portico, showing a staircase rising against a basement in two flights and the bases of seven columns. In the centre the basement has three bays with round-headed arches.
Browse
Reference number
Adam vol.7/77
Purpose
London: Parliament House (designs for). Unfinished design for the elevation of the lower part of a portico, showing a staircase rising against a basement in two flights and the bases of seven columns. In the centre the basement has three bays with round-headed arches.
Aspect
Elevation
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1762-63
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pencil
130 x 314
Hand
James Adam, Office of
Watermark
Fleur de lys in double circle
Notes
This part-elevation is taken from the plan in Adam vol.7/78, for which the guidelines are apparent. It may also be related to the part-elevation on the verso of Adam vol.7/76 and to a pen sketch in Adam vol.7/202. They are all designs for the entrance portico of James Adam's Parliament House scheme and can be traced back to the elevation in Adam vol.7/4 that probably dates from late 1760, and to the later elevation in Adam vol.28/2 and 1/28 both by Robert Adam. The portico shown most closely matches that found in the latter drawing 1/28, which is possibly dated c.1768 and probably derived from James Adam's Parliament House drawings while in Rome in 1762/63 (see A. A. Tait, Robert Adam: drawings and imagination, Cambridge, 1993, pp.55-66). The plan was still 'improving' in 1763, no doubt encouraged by the arrival in 1762 of the Office of Works memorandum giving details of the existing buildings (see Adam vol.7/110). James Adam had written to his sister in London explaining, 'Now that my own plan is made out my curiosity to see the old is greater than ever' (Tait, op. cit., p.63). Nothing appears to survive to match this plan unless it is the two sketches of 1760 and references to the decoration of great and circular halls (see Adam vol.7/60).
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