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The Soane-Dance Collaboration, 1771-1799

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Jill Lever
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After the publication for Sir John Soane’s Museum of a Catalogue of the Drawings of George Dance the Younger (1741-1825) (in 2003) further cataloguing of, and research into, John Soane’s early drawings has enabled the reattribution to George Dance of a number of sketch designs previously thought to be by Soane. In particular there are several drawings from the years 1771 to 1784, when Soane was a student and exhibitor at the Royal Academy, a competition entrant, and in the first years of practice. Later sketch designs by Dance for Soane then relate to several phases of the rebuilding of the Bank of England in the 1790s. It has also been possible to identify Robert Baldwin as the draughtsman for many of Soane’s early Royal Academy and competition drawings, as well as during Soane’s early years in practice, from 1780 to 1785. These discoveries bring to light not only the character of the collaboration between Soane and Dance, but also aspects of architectural practice more generally in the late eighteenth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 53 , 2010 , pp. 163 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2010

References

Notes

1 Summerson, John, ‘Soane: the Case-History of a Personal Style’, Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 3rd series, 58 (1951), pp. 83–91 (p. 89)Google Scholar.

2 The Diary of Joseph Farington, ed. Kathryn Cave (New Haven and London, 1979, 1982), entry for 5 February 1796.

3 Ibid., entry for 2 August 1809.

4 Ibid., entry for 10 July 1796.

5 Savage, Nicholas, ‘A Royal Academy Student in Architecture’, in John Soane Architect: Master of Space and Light, ed. Richardson, Margaret and Stevens, Mary Anne (London, 1999), pp. 86–95 (p. 86)Google Scholar.

6 Hutchinson, Sidney, The History of the Royal Academy 1768-1986, 2nd edn. (London, 1986)Google Scholar, Appendix A.

7 Royal Academy, ‘Royal Book 1768-1802’, entry for 11 August 1769, Royal Academy archive.

8 Ibid.

9 SM vol. 59/103, 45/1/14.

10 Bingham, Neil, ‘Architecture at the Royal Academy Schools, 1768-1836’, The Education of the Architect: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Symposium of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1993, ed. Bingham, Neil (London, 1993) pp. 5–14 (p. 10)Google Scholar.

11 SM 74/2/2.

12 There are only four known drawings signed by Robert Baldwin. Two are for a new house at Wardour and are dated 1768 (Wiltshire and Swindon Archives). Two are in the Soane Museum: a part-section of ‘Saint Stephens Walbrook’ (SM vol. 9/7) datable to before 1784, and a plan for a prison, presumed to be for the competition of 1781-82 (SM 58/1/2). In addition, ten of the contract drawings made for Dance’s Newgate Gaol in 1768-69 have been attributed to Baldwin (SM D4/4/1-10); see Lever, Jill, Catalogue of the Drawings of George Dance the Younger (1741-1825) &from the Collection of Sir John Soane’s Museum (London, 2003), pp. 106–08 Google Scholar, cat. nos [scheme 32]1-10, 25. Of the measured drawing for the Queen’s Gallery by Baldwin, Pierre du Prey has suggested (personal communication, February 2009) that Dance may have contributed to the drawing, for example, adding the shadows that reveal the profile of some of the mouldings.

13 SM 74/2/1.

14 SM 45/1/26, 45/1/29, 45/1/28, 45/1/27.

15 SM 45/1/10.

16 SM D4/11/1-8; Lever, Dance, pp. 73-78, cat. nos [17]1-8.

17 SM 12/5/1-3.

18 SM 12/5/4.

19 SM 12/5/8. Drawn by James Adams, junior, a pupil in Soane’s office from 1806 to 1809. The office ‘Day Book’ has entries by Adams noting his work on the Triumphal Bridge from 13 April to 15 May 1809, making twenty-eight working days.

20 Nicholas Savage, Royal Academy librarian, personal communication, 25 June 2008.

21 SM vol. 42/95, 42/90.

22 Victoria and Albert Museum: V&A 3436.110r and v.

23 SM 69/8/2; Lever, Dance, cat. no. [112].

24 SM vol. 42/96.

25 SM vol. 42/92.

26 SM vol. 42/93.

27 SM (elevation) vol. 66/33, (plan) 45/1/16.

28 SM 45/1/9.

29 SM vol. 42/120.

30 SM 45/1/13.

31 SM 45/1/35, 13/2/5, 13/2/4.

32 SM vol. 42/172V.

33 SM45/1/23.

34 SM vol. 42/184, 182, 183 rectos and versos.

35 SM 45/1/22, 45/1/21, 45/1/20. Prey, P. du, John Soane: the Making of an Architect, pp. 184–85 (Chicago, 1982)Google Scholar. Du Prey commented of the sculptured figures in the design that they ‘possess a lifelike quality far beyond the powers of Soane’s mediocre figure style. It seems certain that Soane, contravening the concorso rules on autograph work, used the assistance of his Roman friend, the painter Carlo Labruzzi’.

36 Soane, John, Designs for Public and Private Buildings (expanded and privately circulated edn., London, 1832; all three extant copies in the Museum, Sir John Soane), pl. xxxiv* Google Scholar. After Soane returned to London in 1780, he probably discussed his failed ‘Castello d’acqua’ design with Dance for there are two rough designs for a waterworks in Dance’s hand that are quite different in character to Soane’s own designs (SM vol. 42/98, 42/99). There is also a related drawing by Dance that satirizes Labruzzi’s nude sculptured figures (SM vol. 42/102).

37 SMC Div. IV P (1).

38 SM 86/2/1a-e. These drawings were previously mounted together and framed but were recently dismounted and de-framed because of their fragile condition.

39 Soane, John, ‘Description of the Residence of Sir John Soane Architect’ (1835), pp. 82–83 Google Scholar. The original drawings have not survived at Parma.

40 SM SNB1 (pages datable to September 1781).

41 SM vol. 42/391 and v, 42/122V.

42 SM 13/1/11-18, 20-22. Baldwin’s own surviving plan (SM 58/1/2) has a dull gridiron layout and it unlikely that he contributed anything beyond his excellent drawing skill to Soane’s design.

43 SM 13/1/4-10.

44 Victoria and Albert Museum, V&A 3306.161, 160. Ruffinière du Prey, Pierre de la, Sir John Soane: Catalogues of Architectural Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 1985), cat. no. [14]77 Google Scholar.

45 SNB 1.

46 Summerson, ‘Soane: the Case-History’; Summerson, John, ‘Soane’s Bank Stock Office at the Bank of England’, Architectural History, 27 (1984), pp. 135–49 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schumann-Bacia, Eva, John Soane and the Bank of England (Harlow, 1991), pp. 51–57, 60 Google Scholar; Abramson, Daniel M., ‘The Bank of England’, in John Soane Architect, ed. Richardson, and Stevens, , pp. 226–27 Google Scholar; Abramson, Daniel M., Building the Bank of England: Money, Architecture, Society 1694-1942 (New Haven and London, 2005), pp. 101–16 Google Scholar.

47 SM vol. 74/1, 10/4/19, vol. 60/140, Archives 14/80/1-5, vol. 42/170-77, vol. 42/76-77; Lever, Dance, pp. 352-55, cat. nos [99] 1-17.

48 Abramson, Bank of England, p. 218.

49 SM vol. 60/2-3; Lever, Dance, pp. 355-56, cat. nos [100]1-2.

50 SM Archives, 1/40; Lever, Dance, p. 356, cat. no. [101].

51 SM vol. 42/187-89.

52 SM vol. 42/188.

53 SM vol. 42/191.

54 SM vol. 42/192.

55 SM D3/3/3; Lever, Dance, p. 196, cat. no. [59]8.

56 Summerson, ‘Soane: the Case-History’, p. 88.

57 Summerson, John, ‘Soane: the Man and the Style’, in John Soane (London, 1983), pp. 9–23 Google Scholar.

58 Personal communication, February 2008.

59 Watkin, David, Thomas Hope, 1769-1831, and the Neo-Classical Idea (London, 1968), pp. 86–87 Google Scholar.

60 SM D2/8/24-5; Lever, Dance, p. 216, cat. nos [69] 1-2.

61 SM D1/3/35, D1/4/63, D1/3/36; Lever, Dance, pp. 269-70, cat. nos [78]58-60.

62 SM 13/1/4.

63 SM 60/2-3; Lever, Dance, pp. 355-56, cat. nos [100] 1-2.

64 See SM online drawings catalogue — Soane in Italy: measured drawings made or copied, 1778-80.

65 See SM online sketchbooks catalogue — sketch/notebook, vol. 39.

66 Farington, ‘Diary’. Other comments by Dance recorded by Farington on 5 September 1803 and 4 March 1810.

67 The Diary of Joseph Farington, entry for 10 February 1797.

68 Dance, George, Esq., RA, A Collection of Portraits Sketched from the Life Since the Year 1793, and Engraved in Imitation of the Original Drawings by William Daniell, A.R.A, 2 vols (London, 1808-14)Google Scholar, preface.

69 The Newgate print is signed ‘R. Baldwin sculp’; SM D4/4/23; Lever, Dance, p. 110, cat. no. [32]25.

70 Tendring Hall, Suffolk, dated 7 July 1784, SM 28/3/1A/1-6.

71 Gate and lodges at Hamels Park, 1781, SM 62/8/32, vol. 41/42r.

72 Soane’s office ‘Accompt book / from 1781’ has a note ‘set out with Pepys & Sanders / to Survey’ (13 February 1785) and entries of payment to ‘Pepys’ of 2 guineas on 21 February and 8 March 1785. George Pepys assisted George Dance in the City of London office from about 1774 ( Stroud, D., George Dance Architect, 1741-1825 (London, 1971), pp. 106, 149, 155–56 Google Scholar).

73 SM 29/1/1-2.

74 Soane’s office ‘Journal 1781-1797’, p. 7.

75 Watkin, David, Sir John Soane: Enlightenment Thought and the Royal Academy Lectures (Cambridge, 1996), p. 561 Google Scholar (lecture V).

76 Ibid., p. 565.

77 Farington, ‘Diary’, 25 March 1804.