Sir John Soane's Museum (often abbreviated to the
Soane Museum) is a
museumA museum is a building or institution which houses a collection of artifacts.Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary...
of
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
, and was formerly the house and studio of the neo-classical architect
Sir John SoaneSir John Soane, RA was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. His architectural works are distinguished by their clean lines, massing of simple form, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skilful use of light sources...
. It holds many
drawingDrawing is a visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, markers, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint...
s and
modelsA physical model is a smaller or larger physical copy of an object. The object being modelled may be small or large ....
of his projects and the collections of paintings, drawings and antiquities that he assembled. The Museum is located in the
HolbornHolborn is an area of Central London, England. Holborn is also the name of the area's principal east-west street, running from St Giles's High Street as High Holborn to Gray's Inn Road to Holborn Viaduct, crossing the borders of the City of Westminster, London Borough of Camden and the City of...
district of central
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, overlooking
Lincoln's Inn FieldsThe Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn...
. The museum is a
non-departmental public bodyIn the United Kingdom, a non-departmental public body is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive to certain types of public bodies...
sponsored by the
Department for Culture, Media and SportThe Department for Culture, Media and Sport is a department of the United Kingdom government, with responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the whole UK, for example broadcasting...
.
History
Soane demolished and rebuilt three houses in succession on the north side of
Lincoln's Inn FieldsLincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London, England. It is thought to have been one of the inspirations of Central Park, New York. It was laid out in part by Inigo Jones from the early 17th century and opened to the public after its acquisition by London County Council in 1895...
. He began with No. 12 (between 1792 and 1794), which is externally a conventional plain brick house typical of the period. After becoming Professor of Architecture at the
Royal AcademyThe Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London, England. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment...
in 1806, Soane purchased No. 13, the house next door, today the Museum, and rebuilt it in two phases in 1808-09 and 1812.
In 1808-09 he constructed his drawing office and "museum" on the site of the former stable block at the back, using primarily top lighting. In 1812 he rebuilt the front part of the site, adding a projecting
Portland StonePortland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries consist of beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles, notably in major...
facade to the basement, ground and first floor levels and the centre bay of the second floor. Originally this formed three open
loggiaLoggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Italian design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...
s, but Soane glazed the arches during his lifetime. Once he had moved into No. 13 Soane rented out his former home at No. 12 (on his death it was left to the nation along with No. 13 - the intention being that the rental income would fund the running of the Museum).
After completing No.13, Soane set about treating the building as an architectural laboratory, continually remodelling the interiors. In 1823, when he was over 70, he purchased a third house, No. 14, which he rebuilt in 1823-24. This project allowed him to construct a picture gallery, linked to No.13, on the former stable block of No.14. The front main part of this third house was treated as a separate dwelling (perhaps almost a speculative development!) and let as an investment - it was not internally connected to the other buildings.
The Museum was established during Soane's own lifetime by a private
Act of ParliamentAn act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament....
in 1833, which took effect on Soane's death in 1837. The Act required that No 13 be maintained 'as nearly as possible' as it was left at the time of Soane's death and by and large that has been the case. Towards the end of the 19th century a break-through was made to re-connect the rear rooms of No 12 through to the Museum in No. 13 and since 1969 No 12 has been run by the Trustees as part of the Museum, housing the research library, offices and, since 1995, the 'Soane Gallery' for temporary exhibitions. The Museum's Trustees remained completely independent, relying only on Soane's original endowment, until 1947. Since that date the Museum has received an annual Grant-in-Aid British Government (this now comes via the Department for Culture, Media and Sport). The Soane Museum is now a national centre for the study of architecture. In 1997 the Trustees purchased the main house at No. 14 with the help of the
Heritage Lottery FundThe Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
: the house will be restored in 2006 to enable the Museum to expand its educational activities.
Staff
Soane's will had provided for there to be a Curator (assumed to be male) and an Inspectress (assumed to be a subordinate female). The architectural historian Sir
John SummersonSir John Newenham Summerson CH CBE was one of the leading English architectural historians of the 20th century.He was born at Coatham Munderville, near Darlington, at Hall Garth, originally the home of his grandfather, who worked for the Darlington and Stockton Railway and founded the family...
was Curator of the Museum from 1945 to 1984. For much of this period he was assisted by Dorothy Stroud who served as Inspectress from 1945 to 1985.
Summerson was succeeded by
Peter ThorntonPeter Kai Thornton CBE was a museum curator and writer. He was keeper of furniture and woodwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London between 1966 to 1984, and curator to Sir John Soane's Museum, in Lincoln's Inn Fields between 1984 and 1995...
who moved from the
Victoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum in London is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852, and has since grown to now cover some and 145 galleries...
to take up the post. Thornton retired in 1995, and was followed by Margaret Richardson, the first woman to hold the title of Curator. She had succeeded Stroud as Inspectress in 1985, and served as Curator until 2005.
The current Director of the Museum is Tim Knox, who has abandoned the use of the title Curator.
Architecture
The most famous spaces in the house are those in the Museum at the rear. These are mostly toplit and provide some idea in miniature form of the ingenious lighting contrived by Soane for the toplit banking halls at the
Bank of EnglandThe Bank of England is, despite its name, the central bank of the whole of the United Kingdom and is the model on which most modern, large central banks have been based. It was established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and to this day it still acts as the banker for the UK...
. The ingeniously designed Picture Gallery has walls composed of large folding panels that allow it to house three times as many items as a space of this size could normally accommodate. When visiting, it is necessary to request for the panels to be opened and wait for a group to gather before this is done.
There are half a dozen living rooms in Nos.12 and 13, many of them highly unusual, but often in subtle ways. The domed ceiling of the Breakfast Room, inset with convex mirrors, has influenced architects from around the world. The library reflects the influence of gothic design and is decorated in a rich 'Pompeian' red. The Study contains a collection of Roman architectural fragments and the two external courtyards, the Monument Court and Monk's Yard contain an array of architectural fragments, Classical in the Monument Court with its central column or 'pasticcio' representing Architecture and Gothic in the Monk's Yard, filled with medieval stonework from the Palace of Westminster.
Collections
Soane's collections included approximately 30,000
architectural drawingAn architectural drawing or architect's drawing is a technical drawing of a building that falls within the definition of architecture...
s, ranging from a book of drawings of Elizabethan houses by
John ThorpeJohn Thorpe or Thorp was an English architect. Little is known of his life, and his work is dubiously inferred, rather than accurately known, from a folio of drawings in the Sir John Soane's Museum, to which Horace Walpole called attention, in 1780, in his Anecdotes of Painting; but how far these...
to the largest collection anywhere of
Robert AdamRobert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
's original drawings. There are also architectural models. 15 of
Giovanni Battista Piranesithumb|upright|Self-portrait.Giovanni Battista Piranesi was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons" .-Biography:...
's original sketches of
PaestumPaestum is the classical Roman name of a major Graeco-Roman city in the Campania region of Italy. It is located in the north of Cilento, near the coast about 85 km SE of Naples in the province of Salerno, and belongs to the commune of Capaccio, officially also named...
hang in the Picture Room. The collection of Neo-classical sculpture collection includes both plaster and terracotta works by
John FlaxmanJohn Flaxman , was an English sculptor and draughtsman.-Early life:He was born in York. His father was also named John, after an ancestor who, according to family tradition, had fought for Parliament at the Battle of Naseby, and afterwards settled as a carrier or farmer in Buckinghamshire...
.
From the painting collection, the best known are by
William HogarthWilliam Hogarth was a major English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from excellent realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral...
: the eight canvases of
A Rake's ProgressA Rake's Progress is a series of eight paintings by 18th century English artist William Hogarth. The canvases were produced in 1732–33 then engraved and published in print form in 1735...
and the four of his famous political satire
Humours of an ElectionThe Humours of an Election is a series of four oil paintings and later engravings by William Hogarth that illustrate the election of a member of parliament in Oxfordshire in 1754. The oil paintings were created in 1755...
based on the
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
Parliamentary Election of 1754. There are also three major works by
CanalettoGiovanni Antonio Canal better known as Canaletto, was a Venetian painter famous for his landscapes, or vedute, of Venice. He was also an important printmaker in etching.- Early career :...
.
The alabaster sarcophagus of
Seti IMenmaatre Seti I was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt , the son of Ramesses I and Queen Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II...
lies in the basement of the museum in what Soane called the 'Sepulchral Chamber'. After it was added to the collection a three day party was held to celebrate the event.
See also
- Soane's country retreat Pitzhanger Manor
Pitzhanger Manor House, in Ealing , was owned from 1800 to 1810 by the architect John Soane, who radically rebuilt it. Soane intended it as a country villa for entertaining and eventually for passing to his elder son. He demolished most of the existing building except the two-storey south wing...
.
- The Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, London. It was built by Sir John Soane as the world's first purpose-built public art gallery and opened in 1817...
designed by Soane in 1811 is the archetype for modern art galleries.
- With its jumbled, eclectic collection in a grand domestic town house, the Soane museum shares many qualities with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens. The museum has a collection of over 2,500 works of European, Asian and American art,...
in Boston.
- Sir John Soane should not be confused with Sir Hans Sloane
Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS was an Ulster-Scot physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the British nation which became the foundation of the British Museum...
, whose collections formed the foundation of the British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
and Natural History MuseumThe Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
.
External links