Dairy design for Lady Craven
Architectural Drawing
1781 (made), 1824-1863 (made)
1781 (made), 1824-1863 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Designs for Lady Craven's Dairy depicted on this sheet of paper are by Sir John Soane and date to 1781. It appears that Charles James Richardson, Soane's assistant between 1824 and 1837, used the blank verso of a Soane sheet to paste on a pair of rustic garden seats of his own design at a much later date. In Richardson's printed works there are several similar rustic structures and the accompanying text makes it clear that Richardson was indebted to Soane for his theories of primitivism.
One of the earliest instances of this primitivism is the Soane dairy depicted in this drawing. Lady Elizabeth Craven by whom it was commissioned in 1781, had a long-standing interest in dairies. Possibly with practical advice from her, Soane produced a pair of dairy structures. In each case the dairy proper occupies the central position of the rear. Stone counter and table tops are indicated in grey wash together with the darker areas indicating the milk jugs that would stand upon them for cooling.
Soane was very well familiar with Abbé Marc-Antoine Laugier's Essai sur l'architecture and knew the supposed origins of antique temple architecture in the trees of the forest. Soane combined his essay in architectural pre-history with the romantic back-to-the-soil connotations of a thatched cottage. All this was in keeping with the theme of milk as a healthy food, and with a broader search among his contemporaries for a return to natural goodness.
One of the earliest instances of this primitivism is the Soane dairy depicted in this drawing. Lady Elizabeth Craven by whom it was commissioned in 1781, had a long-standing interest in dairies. Possibly with practical advice from her, Soane produced a pair of dairy structures. In each case the dairy proper occupies the central position of the rear. Stone counter and table tops are indicated in grey wash together with the darker areas indicating the milk jugs that would stand upon them for cooling.
Soane was very well familiar with Abbé Marc-Antoine Laugier's Essai sur l'architecture and knew the supposed origins of antique temple architecture in the trees of the forest. Soane combined his essay in architectural pre-history with the romantic back-to-the-soil connotations of a thatched cottage. All this was in keeping with the theme of milk as a healthy food, and with a broader search among his contemporaries for a return to natural goodness.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Dairy design for Lady Craven (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Pen and ink with grey, green, brown and pink wash (<i>recto</i>); pen and ink with grey and pink wash (<i>verso</i>). |
| Brief description | Dairy design for Lady Craven including plans and elevations of the entrance façade by Sir John Soane and George Dance the Younger, 1781 and perspectives of garden seats by C.J. Richardson, 1824-1863 |
| Physical description | Plans with dimensions (2) and elevations (2) of the entrance façade (recto); plans (2) and perspectives (2) of garden seats on separate pieces of paper pasted on the verso. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Object history | Historical significance: This dairy was never built. This drawing and the one of the dairy at Hammels [3306:1060] are very similar in design, this suggests that they were drawn around the same time and due to the technique and room labels certainly by Dance. It is possible that both drawings were created for Lady Craven and then re-used for Hammels dairy in 1783. This drawing was pasted into a copy of Sir John Soane's book Designs for Public and Private Buildings, owned by Soane's assistant Charles James Richardson. Richardson built up a large collection of originals and copies (many of which he executed himself) of his master's designs, and distributed the bulk of them into two folio volumes, interspersed with the printed pages of the book. These volumes were bought by the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) in 1863. |
| Production | Judging from the difference in style between the drawings on this piece of paper, it seems that Richardson had used the blank verso of Soane sheet to paste on a pair of rustic garden seats of his own design. In Richardson's printed works there are some similar rustic structures. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Association | |
| Summary | Designs for Lady Craven's Dairy depicted on this sheet of paper are by Sir John Soane and date to 1781. It appears that Charles James Richardson, Soane's assistant between 1824 and 1837, used the blank verso of a Soane sheet to paste on a pair of rustic garden seats of his own design at a much later date. In Richardson's printed works there are several similar rustic structures and the accompanying text makes it clear that Richardson was indebted to Soane for his theories of primitivism. One of the earliest instances of this primitivism is the Soane dairy depicted in this drawing. Lady Elizabeth Craven by whom it was commissioned in 1781, had a long-standing interest in dairies. Possibly with practical advice from her, Soane produced a pair of dairy structures. In each case the dairy proper occupies the central position of the rear. Stone counter and table tops are indicated in grey wash together with the darker areas indicating the milk jugs that would stand upon them for cooling. Soane was very well familiar with Abbé Marc-Antoine Laugier's Essai sur l'architecture and knew the supposed origins of antique temple architecture in the trees of the forest. Soane combined his essay in architectural pre-history with the romantic back-to-the-soil connotations of a thatched cottage. All this was in keeping with the theme of milk as a healthy food, and with a broader search among his contemporaries for a return to natural goodness. |
| Associated objects | |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 3306:161 |
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| Record created | February 5, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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