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Unfinished capriccio showing a street scene with two large irregular buildings in a mixture of classical and Renaissance styles. That on the left has a tiled roof and balconies, and the other has a projecting portico with pediment.
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Reference number
Adam vol.10/14
Purpose
Unfinished capriccio showing a street scene with two large irregular buildings in a mixture of classical and Renaissance styles. That on the left has a tiled roof and balconies, and the other has a projecting portico with pediment.
Aspect
Perspectiveverso perspective
Inscribed
verso Inscribed in pencil in a later hand 17.
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755 - 56
Medium and dimensions
Pencil310 x 416, the sheet has two vertical foldlines
Hand
Robert Adam
Verso
Unfinished pencil capriccio of a towered main block of five stories with dome and cupola, linked by a colonnade of six bays to a pavilion with arcaded entrance. This scheme can be related to the unfinished palace elevation in Adam vol.10/18 and in turn to the vast palace elevation of 1757 in Adam vol.28/1.
Watermark
remains
Notes
In the opinion of A. A. Tait, this drawing relates in time and place or subject to those contained in Adam volume 55.In Adam volume 10, drawings 1-23 are in a section separated from the rest by blank pages, noted in pencil 'There follow 6 blank pages'. Virtually all the drawings in this section are schemes in plan and elevation for a Parliament building modelled, probably by Robert Adam, on James Adam's scheme of 1762/3. The plan in Adam vol.10/1, its elevation in 10/20 and the unfinished elevation in 10/18 were all doubtless seen by the compiler of the volume as relevant to the understanding of the Parliament drawings. It is worth noting that like volume 55, this volume was intended to contain a collection very different from these sketch plans and elevations. The flyleaf is noted in ink and in an eighteenth-century hand, subsequently scored out, 'The Contents/Shields/Quivers/Other warlike Instruments/Instruments of Sacrifice/ Musical Instruments/Ensigns of Deitys/Lamps.This drawing is in the style of Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721-1820), of which there are several in Adam volumes 55 and 56.
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