[16] Drawing made for exhibition at the Royal Academy by George Bailey, 1836

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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
    - Preliminary designs, some by George Dance, final design exhibited at the Royal Academy, record drawing, and perspectives by J.M.Gandy and George Bailey, for a British Senate House 1778-1779 and later (16)

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Reference number

P261 North Drawing Room: south wall

Purpose

[16] Drawing made for exhibition at the Royal Academy by George Bailey, 1836

Aspect

Plan, slightly amended from the original design

Scale

to a scale

Inscribed

(in small capitals) THIS DESIGN WAS COMPOSED WITHOUT REGARD TO EXPENCE / OR LIMITED AS TO SPACE IN THE GAY MORNiNG OF YOUTHFUL / FANCY AMID ALL THE WILD IMAGINATION OF AN ENTHUSIASTIC / MIND, ANIMATED BY THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE MAJESTIC / RUINS OF THE SUBLIME WORKS OF IMPERIAL ROME; TO GIVE LOCALITY TO THE DESIGN AS IT IS SHEWN / CONNECTED WITH THE BANKS OF THE RIVER THAMES. / THE BUILDINGS TINTED RED AND THOSE MARKED F.F.F. / DID NOT FORM PART OF THE FIRST DESIGN MADE / IN ROME; (key to building) REFERENCES / A.A. HALLS OF ENTRANCE / B. HOUSE OF LORDS / C. HOUSE OF COMMONS / D. CHAPEL / E. CONFERENCE ROOM / F.F.F. LIBRARIES / G.G.G. COMMITTEE ROOMS &c / H.H. APARTMENTS FOR THE / SEVERAL OFFICERS OF / BOTH HOUSES and REFERENCES / I HOUSE FOR THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS / K HOUSE FOR THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS / THERE IS A LOFTY BASEMENT STORY THROUGHOUT / THE BUILDING IN WHICH ARE THE INFERIOR / OFFICES CONNECTED WITH BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT and rooms lettered A to K (inscription taken from an old photograph) Frame labelled (later) PLAN OF DESIGN FOR SENATE HOUSE (SIR J. SOANE, ROME 1779)

Signed and dated

Medium and dimensions

n/a Original gilt, reeded frame (matching SM volume 66/4)

Hand

George Bailey (see Notes below)

Verso

Watermark

n/a

Notes

George Bailey (born 1792), entered Soane's office as a pupil, remained as an assistant and in 1837, after Soane's death, became the first curator of Sir John Soanes's Museum until his death in 1860.

'F' marked on the drawing refers to the six library rooms added to the original scheme of 1779. Planned in an enfilade of three rooms parallel with the main body of the building and connecting the wings, they replaced twin sunken gardens with obelisks.

Soane exhibited at the Royal Academy 1836, No.952 'A portfolio design for a British Senate House; from the original drawing made in Rome in 1779'. Although there is no documentary proof that this was the 'portfolio design' for a British Senate House exhibited at the R.A., it does seem highly probable. The term 'portfolio' suggests a design made by a student as evidence of study and ability and kept with other such drawings in his portfolio. Soane died on 20 January 1837.

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

Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.

Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).