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Sketch Design for the ceiling of the Queen's State Bedchamber at Hampton Court Palace
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SM P126. ©Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Photo: Art UK
Sir James Thornhill (1675 - 1734)
Sketch Design for the ceiling of the Queen's State Bedchamber at Hampton Court Palace
1715
Oil on canvas
Height: 73.5cm
Width: 64cm
Width: 64cm
Museum number: P126
On display: Picture Room - inside planes (by arrangement or on some pre-booked tours)
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit - not all tours show the inside of all planes.
Curatorial note
The ceiling of the Queen's State Bedchamber at Hampton Court Palace was painted as part of a re-decoration carried out for the new Hanoverian king, George I, who ascended the throne in 1714. This sketch was thought, wrongly, by Soane to be for the ceiling of the Great Hall at Greenwich, the artist's most famous surviving masterpiece.
Provenance
Unrecorded. It was in Soane's collection by c.1829-30 when the Description published in 1830 was drafted.
Literature
Soane, Description, 1830, pp.15 and 47
Soane, Description, 1835, p.20
Thornton, P. and Dorey, H. A Miscellany of Objects from Sir John Soane's Museum, 1992, p. 44 fig. 39. Please note that the account of the subject incorrectly states that the central figure is Aurora in her chariot - it is in fact Apollo.
New Description, 2007, p.31
Soane, Description, 1835, p.20
Thornton, P. and Dorey, H. A Miscellany of Objects from Sir John Soane's Museum, 1992, p. 44 fig. 39. Please note that the account of the subject incorrectly states that the central figure is Aurora in her chariot - it is in fact Apollo.
New Description, 2007, p.31
Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk