Soane
was a visionary who used his home as a laboratory for his ideas,
the repository for his vast collections of 30,000 drawings; paintings
including Canalettos, Hogarths and Turners; architectural models;
Greek and Roman sculpture and Egyptian Antiquities; 10,000 rare
books, including first editions of Milton and Shakespeare, as
well as his very personal dwelling space.
No discussion of Soane’s work would be complete without
mentioning his use of light. The Museum is filled with mirrors,
domes, fantastic ceilings and skylights with colored glass,
used not only to light the rooms but also to create dramatic
effects and to highlight the numerous plaster casts and marble
fragments that are artistically arranged in every available
space throughout the house.
Due to his foresight in leaving his home to the public by Act
of Parliament in 1833, Soane’s house and its contents survive
today, exactly as they were in his time, giving the visitor a
rare glimpse into a middle class home of the period.
Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation in America was founded
in 1991 in order to further Soane’s goal to educate the
general and professional publics in architecture and the fine
and decorative arts and to support Sir
John Soane’s Museum. Its programs have so far attracted
more than four thousand students, educators, curators, architects,
decorators and collectors. |
