Scale
About 10 feet to 29/32 inch (just over 23 mm)
Inscribed
In pencil, by Hawksmoor, Pass
Signed and dated
Medium and dimensions
Graphite, on trimmed sheet; 282 x 78
Hand
Nicholas Hawksmoor
Watermark
Strasbourg Lily (cut off)
Notes
This stray fragment from a much larger sketch design is evidence of a variant on the second major scheme for rebuilding Whitehall Palace after the fire in January 1698 (see Geraghty 2007, nos. 284-287). The detail is from the south end of the west elevation facing St James's Park (no. 286). The word Pass denotes a passage through the domed arched bay between the projecting giant-order portico of the end pavilion and the long central range. In Geraghty no. 286 the outer blocks of this central range have plain walls, dressed channelled quoin bands at the ends, and a simple cornice, while the central portion has a giant applied giant order portico with a deep, bracketed entablature. In this fragment, however, the giant order and entablature are applied to the end of the outer block, suggesting that this treatment would have been applied to the whole of the park front. A continuous giant order would have rendered the park front monotonous and over-scaled, so the fragment may represent part of a rejected design.
Literature
For the Whitehall Palace
Level
Drawing
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