Francis Place (1647-1728), 'Peterborough House and Westminster Abbey'. (Probably intended to be continuous with E.1509-1931.) Pen and ink and watercolour.

Drawing

Provenance
Much of Place’s work has been preserved by his descendants. He left his collection, which included his own work and many works by Wenceslaus Hollar he had bought from Hollar’s widow, to his second wife who kept the collection mainly intact. After her death, the collection was divided between her two daughters Ann and Frances, though most was inherited by Ann (1696-1773) who married Stonier Parrott. The collection then came into possession of her third son Francis (1725-95) who left it to his daughter Elisabeth after his death. From the marriage with Johan Fraser, her daughter Elisabeth inherited the art works. When she died in 1873, her second husband Patrick Allen, but who had adopted the name Fraser, kept the collection and founded the Art College at Arbroath, where the collection found a new home. However the trustees later sold the collection and so most drawings by Francis Place that became dispersed among museums and collectors, derive from the ‘Fraser sale’ by Sotheby’s on June 10 1931 as does E.1508-1931 (Tyler 1971, 35).

Historical significance
Place's career began in the mid 1660s when he first met Wenceslaus Hollar in London. Though never a student of Hollar (this fact is known from a correspondence between Place and Vertue), he is 'the nearest approach to a direct follower' (Godfrey 1994, 152). The subject and style of his early topographical work indeed show a great influence of Hollar. The figure compositions are very often direct reproductions of Hollar's or other artists' work, while the landscape compositions are mostly his own. After 1680 his drawings develop towards a more personal style, using hatching more constructively and wash increasingly. E.1507-1931 actually dates from this period as the drawing bears the date 1683.

The finished drawing 'Peterborough House and Lambeth from Millbank' (E.1507-1931) is based on two sketches (E.1508-1931 and E.1509-1931) that most probably derive from the same sketchbook. This panoramic view is described as one of his most original ones (Godfrey 1994, 155) though the influence of Hollar on composition and detail is most evident in comparison to some of Hollar's etchings of views of London (reproduced in Hind 1922, for instance pl. XLIII). Frequently, Hollar adds two conversing men to the foreground, which acts as an initial anchoring point for the viewer whose attention is subsequently attracted by the buildings the couple is pointing to. Studies for the two foreground figures of E.1507-1931 appear on a sheet in an American private collection (Stainton and White 1987, 190). The viewpoint in E.1507-1931 is just across the river, with Lambeth on the right side. The large building on the left side of the bank is Peterborough House, which was demolished in 1809 to be replaced by the Millbank Penitentiary (Stainton and White 1987, 190). To the left of Peterborough House one can see Westminster Abbey before the addition of the Hawksmoor's towers in 1735-9.

References

Art Gallery and Museum Kelvingrove. Francis Place, 1647 – 1728: A changing vision of nature: some recently discovered drawings form Hospitalfield House, Arbroath. Glasgow: Glasgow Museums & Art Galleries, 1990.

Godfrey, Richard T. Wenceslaus Hollar: A bohemian Artist in England.London, New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 1994.

Hind, A. Hollar and his views of London and Windsor in the 17th century.London: John Lane, 1922.

Sloan, Kim. ’A Noble Art’ – Amateur Artists and Drawing Masters c. 1600-1800.London: British Museum, 2000.

Stainton, L. and White, C. Drawing in England from Hilliard to Hogarth. London: British Museum Publications, 1987.

Tyler, Richard. Francis Place (1647-1728): An exhibition representing all aspects of his work.York: City Art Gallery, 1971, no. 133.

E.1508-1931