[5] Early rough designs for entrance front, attributed to George Dance

Explore Collections

You are here: CollectionsOnline / [5] Early rough designs for entrance front, attributed to George Dance

Browse

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
    - Rough preliminary designs, some attributed to George Dance, and design 'for a Mausoleum to the Memory of James King drowned June 9. 1776' , 1776-7, with J.M.Gandy perspectives, 1799-1800 (19)

Use of images and copyright
Enlarge this Image

Print this image in A4 view

Reference number

SM volume 42/88

Purpose

[5] Early rough designs for entrance front, attributed to George Dance

Aspect

Rough perspective showing a two-storey concave front with semicircular entrance and flanking niches with, above, a single storey with large and tall openings framed by Greek Doric columns and housing sculpture

Medium and dimensions

Pen, wash, hatching on laid secretary paper (229 x 184)

Hand

George Dance (1741-1825)

Watermark

Presently stuck down and not visible

Notes

This design and SM volume 42/86 show the central part of a gigantic mausoleum on a segmental plan with a deep, round-arched entrance approached by a long and wide flight of stairs. The walls and openings are decorated with huge urns and sculpture that dwarf the tiny mourners. Interestingly SM volume 42/86 shows two colonnaded storeys of equal height above a base, that is, a three-storey building with presumably dome and drum. Soane's final designs are for a three-storey mausoleum. This drawing has striking bracketed pedestals for sculpture and Greek Doric is used for both designs. du Prey attributed SM volume 42/86 to John Flaxman but here it has been re-attributed to George Dance; this drawing is by the same hand. The stylish skeleton figures of Death, and of Winged Victory, as well as the draughtsmanship and the dramatic expressiveness of the design do suggest George Dance. In any case, the hand is certainly not Soane's for as Margaret Richardson (February 2008) commented: 'the sketches are very three-dimensional (which Soane's tend not to be)'.

Literature

P. du Prey, John Soane’s architectural education 1753-80, 1977, p.98

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