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  • image Adam vol.9/45
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Reference number

Adam vol.9/45

Purpose

Unfinished academic study for the plan of the corner part of a courtyard building with internal arcade giving access to a series of pavilions, of which the top has an oval central hall flanked by oval stairs. To one side is a curved pavilion with three-bay recessed centre.

Aspect

Planverso perspective, plans

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

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