Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Death and Memory: Soane and the Architecture of Legacy Paperback – September 28, 2016 by Helen Dorey , Tom Drysdale , Susan Palmer , and Frances Sands (Pimpernel Press)




Sir John Soane RA (/soʊn/; born John Soane; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the Royal Academy and an official architect to the Office of Works. He received a knighthood in 1831.

His best-known work was the Bank of England (his work there is largely destroyed), a building which had a widespread effect on commercial architecture. He also designed Dulwich Picture Gallery, which, with its top-lit galleries, was a major influence on the planning of subsequent art galleries and museums. His main legacy is an eponymous museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which comprises his former home and office, designed to display the art works and architectural artefacts that he collected during his lifetime. The museum is described in the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture as "one of the most complex, intricate, and ingenious series of interiors ever conceived".


In 1833, he obtained an Act of Parliament, sponsored by Joseph Hume to bequeath the house and collection to the British Nation to be made into a museum of architecture, now the Sir John Soane's Museum] George Soane, realising that if the museum was set up he would lose his inheritance, persuaded William Cobbett to try and stop the bill, but failed.

This book of essays is published to coincide with an exhibition of the same title at Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London (October 23, 2015–March 26, 2016) commemorating the 200th anniversary of Soane's beloved wife Eliza's death on November 22, 1815. Its relevance to Soane studies, is, however, much broader, with essays shedding new light on the architecture of legacy in Sir John Soane's Museum; Soane's preoccupation with memorization as revealed in the design process for the Soane family tomb; the legacy of his drawings collection; and Soane's attempt shortly before his death to sustain future interest in his collections by creating a series of time capsules. The essays, written by the curatorial team at Sir John Soane's Museum, are accompanied by 39 illustrations in full color, some of them published for the first time.

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