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Unfinished plan for a theatre showing the auditorium with seven-bay portico flanked internally by staircases opening into a rectangular hall and semi-circular seating space. Beyond are stage and scenary openings.
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Reference number
Adam vol.7/171
Purpose
Unfinished plan for a theatre showing the auditorium with seven-bay portico flanked internally by staircases opening into a rectangular hall and semi-circular seating space. Beyond are stage and scenary openings.
Aspect
Plan
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink in a contemporary hand with some dimensions
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1762-63
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pencil
343 x 442
Hand
James Adam
Watermark
CM
Notes
This is the plan of the theatre elevation shown in Adam vol.7/170, and is a version of the ink sketch in Adam vol.7/176. The Adam library contained Carlo Fontana (1634/8–1714)'s compendium of seventeenth-century theatre designs that Robert Adam used for his work at Drury Lane and the Haymarket Opera House, both London. The use of hatching in this plan may be compared with that in plans by James Adam of 1756 in Adam vol.7/17.
The first parliament of the reign of George III began in 1760 and this drawing belongs to that period, and is probably contemporary with James Adam's Parliament House scheme of 1762/63; like that scheme it may have been begun before he left London for Italy in 1760.
The first parliament of the reign of George III began in 1760 and this drawing belongs to that period, and is probably contemporary with James Adam's Parliament House scheme of 1762/63; like that scheme it may have been begun before he left London for Italy in 1760.
Level
Drawing
Exhibition history
'Bob the Roman': Heroic Antiquity and the Architecture of Robert Adam, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 27 June - 27 September 2003; New York School of Interior Design Gallery, 29 September - 4 December 2004
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