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Maurice-Louis Jolivet’s drawings at West Wycombe Park

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Extract

The recognition of a group of drawings as by the French architect Maurice-Louis Jolivet, about whom little more than his responsibility for a survey map of West Wycombe Park, dated 1752, has been known, dispels much of the mystery surrounding this previously enigmatic figure. It also sheds new light on the patronage of Sir Francis Dashwood.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1994

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References

Notes

1 SirDashwood, Francis, The Dashwoods of West Wycombe (London, 1990), p. 52.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., p. 28.

3 Jolivet was evidently not drawing one of the eighteenth-century Continental forms of coronets, which were substantially different, as the College of Arms has kindly confirmed.

4 Middlesex Deeds Registry (MDR) 1717/4/232. Dashwood also owned the adjoining land in Tenterden Street. I am grateful to Frank Kelsall for making his notes on Hanover Square available to me and for directing me to the MDR.

5 Compare Horwood's map of 1792, Sheet B.2. at MDR.

6 V & A E.9O3-1928. Design for a kitchen in a landscape setting. The verso is inscribed ‘for my kitchen’, not in Kent's hand so presumably in that of the patron. I am grateful to Geoffrey Fisher for indicating the possible connection between these two drawings.

7 Society of Dilettanti Minutes, vol. 2, held at the Society of Antiquaries.

8 Braham, Allan, The Architecture of the French Enlightenment (London, 1980), p. 11.Google Scholar

9 Society of Dilettanti Minutes, vol. 2. Also Kelsall, Frank, ‘Cavendish Square’, Georgian Group Report and journal (1989). 7579 (P- 78).Google Scholar

10 Society of Dilettanti D. MSS 1/105.

11 Ibid. Minutes, vol. 2.

12 Before I saw this drawing in Paris, Dr Janine Barrier had discussed with me her idea that Jolivet could have been brought to England as Servandoni's draughtsman but with the proviso that it was speculation as no primary evidence seemed to be available.

13 Archives Nationales, Paris, Series N Ech. 1/166 N111 Seine 69/5.

14 Biver, Marie-Louise, Le Paris de Napoléon (Paris, 1963), p. 117 Google Scholar

15 Colvin, Howard, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 (London, 1978), p. 726.Google Scholar

16 Ibid. Also, Hornsby, ClareAntiquarian Extravagance in Hammersmith’, Apollo, 134 (December 1991), 41014.Google Scholar

17 Journal entries for 7, 8, and 17 May 1750. Carswell, J. and Dralle, L. A., The Political Journal of George Bubb Dodington (Oxford, 1965), pp. 68 and 70.Google Scholar

18 I am grateful to Dr Frances Vivian for discussing her idea with me.

19 Purchas, Anne, ‘A Building History of West Wycombe Park with a Catalogue of Architectural Drawings’ (M.A. thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, 1992), pp. 1013.Google Scholar

20 Colvin, p. 726.

21 Hornsby, Clare, ‘The Life and Work of Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni 1695-1766’ (doctoral thesis, Bristol University 1989), plate 56.Google Scholar

22 Ibid.

23 I am grateful to Sir Francis Dashwood for drawing my attention to these symbols.

24 Jackson-Stops, Gervase, ‘The West Wycombe Landscape’, Country Life (20 June 1974), p. 1619 Google Scholar; An English Arcadia 1600-1990 (London, 1992), pp. 9395 Google Scholar; and Rococo Art and Design in Hogarth's England (London, 1984), p. 192.Google Scholar

25 I am grateful to the following who kindly gave me their opinions on some of these drawings: Dr Janine Barrier, Dr Peter Führing, Geoffrey Fisher, John Harris (who suggested that ‘b’, the designs for a wooden bridge, might be attributable to William Jones), Dr Clare Hornsby, John Newman, and Dr Giles Worsley.

26 English Arcadia, p. 93, fig. 65, ‘West Wycombe Landscape’, p. 1619, fig. 4, Rococo Art and Design, p. 192.

27 Geoffrey Fisher drew my attention to this point.

28 English Arcadia, p. 95, fig. 67.

29 Ibid., p. 194, fig. 66; and ‘West Wycombe Landscape’, p. 1619, fig. 5.