From bricklayer’s son to eminent 18th-century architect, Sir John Soane cemented his legacy by fastidiously studying works of his architectural forefathers. The Englishman’s most notable works are both in London: the world’s first purpose-built art gallery, Dulwich Picture Gallery, and the Bank of England building, which took 45 years to complete.
As professor of architecture at the Royal Academy Schools in London, Soane passed his passion for architecture on to future generations. In his inaugural lecture, he emphasized the importance of studying ancient architecture: “Let us therefore profit from the labors and zeal of those who have endeavored to preserve and make us acquainted with the precious fragments of antiquity; let us tread in their paths; let us from their labors endeavor to discover the principles that directed the great artists of antiquity; and when we have no remains of their splendid and glorious works to direct our studies, and to animate our minds to exertion, let us consult the poets, historians, and orators, wrecks of whose works have happily reached us.”
Soane practiced what he preached. He filled his home and his Drawing Office with Greek and Roman classics, poetry, painting, sculpture, history, music, and architecture. He knew that by immersing himself in the arts, he could hone his architectural skills and inspire his draftsmen and pupils too.
Soane bequeathed his home and office to the nation with the express wish that it be left as it was when he died, and that entry be free, to inspire and educate everyone.
The Sir John Soane Museum in London is an architectural treasure trove. For the first time in its history, the museum is offering visitors a tour of the architect’s Drawing Office, where Soane educated his apprentices in the “art, business, and profession of architecture,” as explained by the museum’s deputy director and inspectress Helen Dorey in a video on the museum’s website. Visitors can see where his pupils worked for 12 hours a day, six days a week to become proficient in their profession.
Conservators at the Sir John Soane Museum in London often worked in cramped and challenging conditions while restoring Soane’s Drawing Room. The 18th-century architect hung architectural plaster casts up high and on every surface, including the ceiling, making accessing the casts an almost acrobatic affair. (Gareth Gardener)
Visitors can now see the Drawing Office hung high with the artworks and architectural casts that inspired Soane, his draftsmen, and pupils. Maybe visitors will be inspired by the noble, enduring traditions of architecture echoed in Soane’s first lecture, when he reiterated the importance of looking to beauty and tradition to inform our progress: “If we have industry and application, to make us acquainted with the grand, sublime, and beautiful in architecture; enough yet remains to enable us to restore the art to at least a large portion of its ancient glory.”
