Original design for decoration of gallery, South Kensington Museum
Design
ca. 1865 - ca. 1869 (made)
ca. 1865 - ca. 1869 (made)
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| Place of origin |
The collection housed by the Victoria and Albert Museum began life in the 1830s as a studying aid for design students at Somerset House. During the 1850s both the collection and Art School, or Art Training School, were relocated to a larger site at South Kensington. This drawing shows a proposal for ornamenting one of the bays of the National Competition Gallery (now Rooms 100-101), an area of the Victoria and Albert Museum intended for receiving and assessing students' work - both that of on-site students, and of those studying at one of the associated schools set up outside London. A key feature of the decoration of the National Competition Gallery was a sequence of painted lunettes. Depicting drawing, painting and modelling, these were designed by a number of different artists. The design seen in this drawing is by Richard Redgrave; it shows the 'Composition of Children'. Having been removed shortly before the Second World War, the lunettes were returned to the former National Competition Gallery in 2006 and 2011.
Object details
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| Materials and techniques | Pen and ink and watercolour on paper |
| Brief description | Design for Victoria and Albert Museum by Richard Redgrave, National Competition Gallery, about 1865-9 |
| Physical description | Highly-finished pen and ink and watercolour drawing on paper. This design for decorating the interior of the National Competition Gallery of the Victoria and Albert Museum (now Rooms 100-101) shows the proposed handling of one bay, with the edges of the two adjoining bays indicated to either side. The centrally-depicted bay is framed by a pair of pilasters superimposed onto piers, which each support an acanthus-leaf corbel from which springs a roof bracket, and which together support a round-headed arch. Divided into five segments containing garland-bearing cherubs, with a decorative outer border of roundels and panels containing floral motifs, the painted tympanum of the round-headed arch is the most highly ornamented part of the design. The rectangular area beneath the tympanum is coloured green; the pilasters, piers and plinth are painted to resemble marble. Annotated 'R.Redgrave' in pencil. |
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| Place depicted | |
| Summary | The collection housed by the Victoria and Albert Museum began life in the 1830s as a studying aid for design students at Somerset House. During the 1850s both the collection and Art School, or Art Training School, were relocated to a larger site at South Kensington. This drawing shows a proposal for ornamenting one of the bays of the National Competition Gallery (now Rooms 100-101), an area of the Victoria and Albert Museum intended for receiving and assessing students' work - both that of on-site students, and of those studying at one of the associated schools set up outside London. A key feature of the decoration of the National Competition Gallery was a sequence of painted lunettes. Depicting drawing, painting and modelling, these were designed by a number of different artists. The design seen in this drawing is by Richard Redgrave; it shows the 'Composition of Children'. Having been removed shortly before the Second World War, the lunettes were returned to the former National Competition Gallery in 2006 and 2011. |
| Bibliographic reference | Physick, John. The Victoria and Albert Museum: The History of Its Building. London: The Victoria & Albert Museum, 1982.
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 219 |
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| Record created | June 30, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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