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Drawing
Chambers, William - Enlarge image
Drawing
- Date:
18th century (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Chambers, William (Sir), born 1723 - died 1796 (designer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Pen and ink, pencil and wash
- Museum number:
3384
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E, case A, shelf 229, box A
Elevation and partial plan of the monument to Pope, Gay and Swift by leading architect and designer Sir William Chambers (1723-1796). On the verso, small and concentric circles drawn with a compass. Chambers was employed at Kew by the Dowager Princess from 1757 to completely remodel the gardens. Between that date and 1763, Chambers erected twenty-five buildings and other features at Kew, in addition to designing unbuilt projects like the monument to the British poets. This design is identical to the plate in Treatise, except for the shadows, which fall in the opposite direction. It may therefore be either the drawing for the engraver or a drawing copied from such a drawing. As it is in an office hand, the second possibility is more likely. It shows the proposed monument to have been in the form of a small temple, the entrance framed by Ionic columns. On the back wall below an urn is a plaque to Pope. At either side of the plinth, on blocks surmounted by sphinxes, are inscriptions to Swift and Gay.
Chambers was born in Sweden and died in London. He travelled widely, visiting China, and studied architecture at the Ecole des Arts, Paris, from 1749 and in Italy from 1750 to 1755. Many of his drawings from this period are contained in his important 'Franco-Italian' album, held in the V&A. Chambers moved to London in 1755 and published his influential Treatise on Civil Architecture in 1759. Chambers demonstrated the breadth of his style in buildings such as Gower (later Carrington) House and Melbourne House, London, in such country houses as Duddingston, Scotland, and in the garden architecture he designed for Wilton House, Wiltshire, and at Kew Gardens. He became head of government building in 1782, and in this capacity built Somerset House, London.
