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The Smoking House at Chelsea
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SM P307. ©Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Photo: Art UK
George Jones RA (1786 - 1869)
The Smoking House at Chelsea
1834
Oil on canvas
Height: 70.5cm
Width: 91.5cm
Width: 91.5cm
Inscription: ROYAL HOSPITAL CHELSEA / SMOKING ROOM / ERECTED BY / SIR JOHN SOANE [on a tabula ansata above the door to the right]
Museum number: P307
On display: Morning Room (pre-booked tours only)
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
Curatorial note
Soane was appointed as the surveyor of the Royal Hospital of Chelsea in 1807 and presumably commissioned this picture in remembrance of scenes that he had witnessed at the Hospital during the Peninsula War at the time of the battle of La Coruna in 1809.
Jones' sketch for this work, in pen and black ink with some watercolour washes and perhaps made from life at Chelsea Hospital, is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (accession no. WA1881.359.125).
Jones' sketch for this work, in pen and black ink with some watercolour washes and perhaps made from life at Chelsea Hospital, is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (accession no. WA1881.359.125).
Literature
Soane, Description, p.91
Bolton, Portrait, 1927, p.480
Hichberger, J. 'Captain Jones of the Royal Academy', Turner Studies, 3/1 (1983), pp.14-20
Soane. J., 'Description of the Residence of Sir John Soane', Tenth Edition, 1920
Bolton, Portrait, 1927, p.480
Hichberger, J. 'Captain Jones of the Royal Academy', Turner Studies, 3/1 (1983), pp.14-20
Soane. J., 'Description of the Residence of Sir John Soane', Tenth Edition, 1920
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