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[6] Presentation design for the east (park) front
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Reference number
SM, volume 110/9
Purpose
[6] Presentation design for the east (park) front
Aspect
Elevation
Scale
Just over 10 feet to 1 inch
Inscribed
In ink by Dance at bottom left, Gd, and to right in C19 hand, (10)
Signed and dated
- Undated, but within range 1689-90
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink with grey wash over graphite under drawing; two matching sheets of thin ‘post writing paper’, heavily trimmed, pasted and folded at centre, the right side laid down; the left side backed with linen; 313 x 814, made up from 313 x 405 (left sheet) and 313 x 415 (right sheet)
Hand
Hawksmoor
Watermark
On both sheets: Strasbourg Lily / 4WR
Notes
The drawing is a pair with 5, above (110/10), and may have been drawn on the corresponding watermarked halves of the same two sheets of paper.Although highly finished, the drawing is at a relatively early stage in the construction history of the Park front from 1690 as the details above the level of the main entablature do not correspond in all respects with the fabric. The pediment relief is not that carved by Cibber in 1694, the attic has blank panels instead of windows above the slopes of the pediment, and the balustrade has single pedestals across most of the central portion instead of three-part pedestals. Another difference is in the positioning of the roundels above the first-floor windows. They are set slightly below the band course at main cornice level, whereas in the fabric and on 110/10 they join this band course. A likely date for the drawing is late in 1689, when work had progressed up to the attic level of the western two thirds of the Privy Garden front.
Literature
Wren Society, IV, pl. 17, bottom
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