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[1] Design made for exhibition at the Royal Academy
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- Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
Reference number
SM 45/1/17
Purpose
[1] Design made for exhibition at the Royal Academy
Aspect
Plan, drawn in a three-dimensional way with cast shadows
Scale
bar scale of 1/8 in to 1 ft
Inscribed
Rooms labelled: Lecture Room / and / Library, C Exhibition / of / Sculpture, B Exhibition of / Painting, A Exhibition of / Architecture, Librarian's Closet, Book-room, Water Closet, Keeper's Room, The Plaister Academy, The Living Academy, Vestibule , Treasurers / Office, Lobby (twice), Staircase leading to the / Secretary's Apartments &c and a key: (against Architecture Room) A When not used for the Exhibition / .... Academy for the Female figure / (against Painting Room) B Council Room / (against circular Sculpture Room) C Academy for the Students in / Architecture, dimensions given; title A Design for an Academy of Arts 1775 (inscribed later by G.Bailey, curator 1837-60)
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen, pink and sepia washes, shaded, pricked for transfer on laid paper with old patch (460 x 655)
Hand
Robert Baldwin ( fl. 1762-c.-1804)
Watermark
fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche with GR below and J Whatman
Notes
For another plan drawn in a similar way and also attributed to Robert Baldwin see (Soane's architectural education: Rough preliminary designs .. and design 'for a Mausoleum to the Memory of James King drowned June 9.1776' (SM 45/1/16).
The stimulus for Soane's design arose from Government proposals for the re-building of Old Somerset House and thus for new quarters for the Royal Academy. Soane's square plan, designed on three axes with three sets of interconnecting rooms, allowed for dual use such as the Library/Lecture Room. A flexible use of the rooms was permitted by the short run (six weeks) of the annual exhibition. The plan shows the side walls as windowless - top lighting must have been envisaged.
Inevitably, the question arises of whether Soane sought advice from George Dance. Soane's choice of scheme at the moment when William Chambers was chosen as architect for the new Somerset House was perhaps more than coincidence and may have relied on information from a Royal Academy insider such as Dance. Certainly the scheme would be of great interest to Dance and the practical, multi-purpose plan, use of top lighting and elements of the elevation such as roundels over alcoves could have come from him.
Soane exhibited at the Royal Academy 1776, No. 289 'The principal faςade and plan of a design for a Royal Academy'.
Jill Lever
The stimulus for Soane's design arose from Government proposals for the re-building of Old Somerset House and thus for new quarters for the Royal Academy. Soane's square plan, designed on three axes with three sets of interconnecting rooms, allowed for dual use such as the Library/Lecture Room. A flexible use of the rooms was permitted by the short run (six weeks) of the annual exhibition. The plan shows the side walls as windowless - top lighting must have been envisaged.
Inevitably, the question arises of whether Soane sought advice from George Dance. Soane's choice of scheme at the moment when William Chambers was chosen as architect for the new Somerset House was perhaps more than coincidence and may have relied on information from a Royal Academy insider such as Dance. Certainly the scheme would be of great interest to Dance and the practical, multi-purpose plan, use of top lighting and elements of the elevation such as roundels over alcoves could have come from him.
Soane exhibited at the Royal Academy 1776, No. 289 'The principal faςade and plan of a design for a Royal Academy'.
Jill Lever
Literature
P. du Prey, John Soane’s architectural education 1753-80, 1977, pp.75-6
P. du Prey, John Soane: the making of an architect, 1982, pp.57-9
P. du Prey, John Soane: the making of an architect, 1982, pp.57-9
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