Inscribed
Inscribed in ink 45verso inscribed in pencil in a nineteenth-century hand 45
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1755 - 56
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, black chalk353 x 459, vertical foldline
Hand
Laurent-Benoît Dewez (attributed to)
Verso
Academic studies in black chalk for related parts of a courtyard building: perspective and five unfinished sketch plans. Three of the plans are variants for a quadrant building with a concave internal façade with a detail showing a four-bay portico on steps connecting niches to a large pavilion. The perspective shows half of the courtyard with central portico beneath a large dome. The plan in Adam vol.9/71 is a version of the quadrant plan and pavilion found here, particularly the lower drawing. The large plan has been pricked through.
Watermark
arms
Notes
Both the plans and perspective on recto and verso can be associated with the Adam scheme of 1756 for rebuilding Lisbon, Portugal (see Adam vol.9/56), although they can also be seen as part of the development of courtyard compositions, such as those in 9/36 and 39. The neat, small-scale plans suggest that this may be an exercise set by Laurent-Benoít Dewez, and the large plan on the verso has been pricked through.
Literature
verso rep. A. A. Tait, Robert Adam: drawings and imagination, Cambridge, 1993, fig.36
Level
Drawing
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