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Trompe l'œil showing five drawings of ruins, composed as if they are on overlapping sheets of paper.
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Reference number
Adam vol.56/59
Purpose
Trompe l'œil showing five drawings of ruins, composed as if they are on overlapping sheets of paper.
Aspect
Perspectives
Inscribed
In ink 2; and in red ink 59
Signed and dated
- Datable probably to 1757
Medium and dimensions
Pen, brown and grey washes352 x 328
Hand
Robert Adam (1728-1792)
Notes
This composition by Robert Adam showing a number of small views of ruins can be compared with similar vignettes in Adam vol.56/107 -129, which are attributed to Charles-Louis Clérisseau and show sarcophagi in a variety of ruined settings. In The Hermitage there are also drawings by Clérisseau for such compositions as medallions and as backgrounds to individual drawings of the letters of the alphabet (see Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721-1820) Dessins du musée de l'Ermitage Saint-Petersbourg catalogue of exhibition held at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1995, pp.144-5). There is a copy of this drawing by C J Richardson (1806-1871) in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (P&D 93.G.8/34).
Literature
J. Fleming Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome (London, 1962), fig.65
Level
Drawing
Exhibition history
Visions of Ruin: Architectural fantasies & designs for garden follies, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 2 July - 28 August 1999
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