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Triumphal Gateway at Hyde Park Corner

Drawing
c.1775 (made)
Artist/Maker
Adam, Robert (designer)
Place of origin
London (made)

Drawing comprising two sheets stuck together. The top drawing is in pen and ink and grey wash and shows a gateway in the form of a triumphal arch. A pedimented central archway is flanked by tall wings that terminate in large scale sculptures of a lion and unicorn above pedestrian arches. These arches are contained within pedimented Doric aedicules that are repeated on the pier walls that support the central road arch and here contain statues of a kind and queen set in arched niches. The whole facade is vigorously rusticated throughout. The bottom drawing is in pen and ink and shows the corresponding plan, with dimensions. The drawings are pricked for transfer and with faint pencil underdrawing and dimension

Object details

Categories
Scotland
Designs
Object type
Drawing
TitleTriumphal Gateway at Hyde Park Corner
Materials and techniques
Pen and ink and grey wash on paper
Pen and Ink
Wash
Paper
Pencil
Drawing
Brief description
Architectural drawing showing a proposed triumphal gateway at Hyde Park Corner, London, designed by Robert Adam, c. 1775
Physical description
Drawing comprising two sheets stuck together. The top drawing is in pen and ink and grey wash and shows a gateway in the form of a triumphal arch. A pedimented central archway is flanked by tall wings that terminate in large scale sculptures of a lion and unicorn above pedestrian arches. These arches are contained within pedimented Doric aedicules that are repeated on the pier walls that support the central road arch and here contain statues of a kind and queen set in arched niches. The whole facade is vigorously rusticated throughout. The bottom drawing is in pen and ink and shows the corresponding plan, with dimensions. The drawings are pricked for transfer and with faint pencil underdrawing and dimension
Dimensions
  • The two sheets together height: 45cm
  • The two sheets together width: 56.5cm
  • The top sheet height: 27.4cm
  • The top sheet width: 56.6cm
  • The bottom sheet height: 18.4cm
  • The bottom sheet width: 56.6cm
The top sheet has been trimmed along the bottom and on the left
Production typeDesign
Marks and inscriptions
  • N.B.: The fair Copy had no Rusticks and instead of square pannells in spand[rels] of Great Arch there were circular Basreliefs the same diamr. as the nich. The pannells over the niches etc. had an ornament as sketched below. (To the right of the drawing of the gateway; Handwriting; Pen and ink; Adam, Robert)
  • Extends 112 Feet (Immediately to the bottom right of the drawing of the gateway; Handwriting; Pen and ink; Adam, Robert)
  • No 17 Hyde Park Gateway, Put aside [crossed out], office copy (On the reverse, faintly; Handwriting; Pencil; Adam, Robert)
Gallery label
Office of Robert and James Adam
Design in plan and elevation for a
Triumphal Gateway at Hyde Park
Corner. About 1775
Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour

Until well into the nineteenth century Hyde
Park Corner represented the entry both into
the built-up area of London and into the royal
parks surrounding Buckingham Palace. This
drawing is for one of a number of unexecuted
Adam schemes for gateways on the site. The
final finished drawing did not use the all-over
rustication of this design, generally
considered appropriate for the fortified entry
into a city. This design shows the Adams'
ability to combine a mathematically
proportioned arrangement of solids and voids
with a free and very imaginative use of neo-
classical detail. The drawing in various tones
of grey is not intended to be deliberately dull
but to show the precision and calculation of
the design. It is very different from the more
atmospheric drawings of Chambers.

3327
Subjects depicted
Arch
Gateway
Unicorns
Lions
Statues
Columns
Pediments
Balustrades
Architecture
Classicism
Places depicted
Hyde Park
London
Bibliographic reference
Alistair Rowan, 'Robert Adam: Catalogue of Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum', V&A publications, 1988, cat. 69 and illustrated in plate 27
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
3327

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Record createdJuly 31, 2003
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O82973/triumphal-gateway-at-hyde-park-drawing-adam-robert/
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