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[50-52] Sketch perspective, 18 June 1800 and perspectives for re-modelling the Painted Chamber and for a lobby (3)
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Reference number
SM (50) volume 69/69 (51) P153 (Breakfast Room) (52) P151 (Breakfast Room)
Purpose
[50-52] Sketch perspective, 18 June 1800 and perspectives for re-modelling the Painted Chamber and for a lobby (3)
Aspect
50 Sketch perspective with domed ceiling
51 Finished perspective with domed ceiling
52 Finished perspective with domed ceiling and with an inset plan
Inscribed
(50) House of Lords
(51) (frame) Entrance to House of Lords J Soane 1794, drawing inscribed: View of a Design for one of the / principal entrances into the proposed New House of Lords / MDCCXCIV
(52) (frame) Part of the new House of Lords J. Soane, 1794, plan: Part of the / House of Lords, drawing inscribed: Part of the building proposed for the new House of Lords / This View was made from the Drawings designed in obedience to an Order of a Committee of the / House of Lords and officially submitted to be honored with the approbation of His Majesty
Signed and dated
- (50) June 18 1800
Medium and dimensions
(50) Pen, warm sepia and blue washes, shaded on laid paper in album with blue, pink and yellow marbled boards (368 x 234) (51) pen and coloured washes, framed (890 x 640 approximately) (52) pen and coloured washes, framed (850 x 625 approximately)
Hand
(50) Joseph Michael Gandy (1771-1843, assistant January 1798-March 1801) (51, 52) ? Henry Hake Seward (1778-1848, pupil and assistant, May 1794 - September 1808)
Notes
The inset plan of drawing 52 shows 'Part of the new House of Lords' that is a lobby with apsidal ends and the re-modelled Painted Chamber with domed and vaulted ceiling and pairs of Ionic columns. Drawing 51 shows the same rooms but a from a different view point. The design varies slightly so that, for example, the domed ceiling of drawing 51 has winged fgures in the spandrels - as does Gandy's sketch.
While the sketch perspective is certainly by Gandy, the finished perspectives are not in his hand. They have been attributed to Henry Hake Seward who was perhaps helped by Gandy. Unusually, Seward exhibited at the Royal Academy in his own name from 1797 to 1808 while still working for Soane and subsequently until 1823. He clearly had great natural talent but his perspectives do not have the 'magic' of those by Gandy. It may be significant that drawings 51 and 52 are hung above two of the doors to the Breakfast Room and so rather out of sight and less noticeable than the Gandy perspectives for the House of Lords hung in the North Drawing Room.
Literature. S.Sawyer, Soane at Westminster, PhD Columbia University, 1999, p. 225 (drawings 51,52)
While the sketch perspective is certainly by Gandy, the finished perspectives are not in his hand. They have been attributed to Henry Hake Seward who was perhaps helped by Gandy. Unusually, Seward exhibited at the Royal Academy in his own name from 1797 to 1808 while still working for Soane and subsequently until 1823. He clearly had great natural talent but his perspectives do not have the 'magic' of those by Gandy. It may be significant that drawings 51 and 52 are hung above two of the doors to the Breakfast Room and so rather out of sight and less noticeable than the Gandy perspectives for the House of Lords hung in the North Drawing Room.
Literature. S.Sawyer, Soane at Westminster, PhD Columbia University, 1999, p. 225 (drawings 51,52)
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