Details of decoration for the Sheepshanks Gallery
Design
ca. 1856 - ca. 1857 (made)
ca. 1856 - ca. 1857 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
In the early years of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the majority of buildings on its present South Kensington site were temporary or inherited structures: these included the so-called Brompton Boilers and Brompton Park House respectively (see E.1321-1927). The first exception was the Sheepshanks Gallery (now the V&A Bookshop and Rooms 91-93 above; elevations since rebuilt), a two-storey, seven-bay building erected in 1856-8 to house a collection of paintings, mostly contemporary works, which had been gifted by John Sheepshanks. The brick-clad building was designed in a north Italian Renaissance style, with a decorative external appearance incorporating ornamental brickwork, round-headed windows and double-height colonettes - which functioned as rainwater drainage pipes - reaching from the spring of the first-floor arches down to the ground floor. This drawing is a design (not executed) for the bands holding the pipes against the façade at the point between the two storeys (see also 216A-1889 and 216B-1889). Redgrave, who had organised the British art entry to the Universal Exhibition in Paris of 1855 and held a number of positions in the Art Training School or Art School (the institution for which the collection later housed by the Victoria and Albert Museum was first established), would be an influential force in shaping the young Museum.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | Details of decoration for the Sheepshanks Gallery (generic title) |
Materials and techniques | Pencil drawing on paper |
Brief description | Design for Victoria and Albert Museum by Richard Redgrave, exterior details for Sheepshanks Gallery, ca. 1856-7 |
Physical description | Pencil drawing on paper, comprising a design for the iron bands of the stack pipes (or colonettes) on the exterior of the Sheepshanks Gallery. Shaded to demonstrate relief, the drawing shows a rectangular band ornamented by a ram's head. A scrolling garland is held in the ram's mouth and loops through his curved horns. A plain border runs along the band's two horizontal edges. Inscribed ‘Iron band for stack-pipe Sheepshanks Gallery RR’. |
Dimensions |
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Credit line | Given by Mrs Richard Redgrave |
Subject depicted | |
Place depicted | |
Summary | In the early years of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the majority of buildings on its present South Kensington site were temporary or inherited structures: these included the so-called Brompton Boilers and Brompton Park House respectively (see E.1321-1927). The first exception was the Sheepshanks Gallery (now the V&A Bookshop and Rooms 91-93 above; elevations since rebuilt), a two-storey, seven-bay building erected in 1856-8 to house a collection of paintings, mostly contemporary works, which had been gifted by John Sheepshanks. The brick-clad building was designed in a north Italian Renaissance style, with a decorative external appearance incorporating ornamental brickwork, round-headed windows and double-height colonettes - which functioned as rainwater drainage pipes - reaching from the spring of the first-floor arches down to the ground floor. This drawing is a design (not executed) for the bands holding the pipes against the façade at the point between the two storeys (see also 216A-1889 and 216B-1889). Redgrave, who had organised the British art entry to the Universal Exhibition in Paris of 1855 and held a number of positions in the Art Training School or Art School (the institution for which the collection later housed by the Victoria and Albert Museum was first established), would be an influential force in shaping the young Museum. |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | 216-1889 |
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Record created | June 8, 2009 |
Record URL |
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