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He began his career as a pupil in the offices of George Dance the Younger and Henry Holland and was a student at the Royal Academy. He won the Academy Gold Medal for Architecture in 1776 and was awarded their Travelling Scholarship, funded by King George III. After spending two years in Italy he set up his own practice and continued working as an Architect until his death at the age of 84. |
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Although Soane’s architectural collections had always been one of the Museum’s principal strengths, his theme, as he expressed it, was the ‘union of the arts’.
In the Description of his residence Soane states :
‘One of the objects I had in view was to shew, partly by graphic illustration, the union and close connexion between Painting, Sculpture and Architecture - Music and Poetry; - another purpose is the natural desire of leaving these works of Art subject as little as possible to the chance of their being removed from the positions relatively assigned to them; they having been arranged as studies for my own mind, and being intended similarly to benefit the Artists of future generations’.
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In his house at No. 13, it appears that Soane was catalysed to develop a recess into a sculpture gallery by his success in persuading Parliament to pass the Act of 1833 establishing the Museum as his gift to the nation.
In his 1835 Description of the Museum he remarks of the Tivoli Recess:
‘…the ceiling…is highly enriched by ornaments figurative of the sun’s meridian splendour shining forth on its little world of treasures…
On the west side, near the floor, is a plaster cast of a Grecian Feast … modelled … by John Flaxman. Above it is a plaster Cast of a basso-relievo … by Thomas Banks….. The subject is the Grief of Achilles for the Death of Patroclus. Above … is an original terracotta Model by the same Artist of … Caratacus before Claudius. Over this … is a Basso-relievo in terracotta from the Borghese vase … by John Flaxman.
On the north side, facing the entrance, is a model of a Sleeping Child … by Frances Chantrey. Above it … two small statues of Cupid and Psyche and over these the splendid work of the same Artist, the Shield of Achilles. Above … is a copy of the Entablature of the little Temple at Tivoli, half the dimensions of the ancient work.’ |
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He was Architect to the Bank of England for 45 years and his other masterpieces include the first public Art Gallery in Britain - the Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dining Rooms in Downing Street for the Prime Minister, work at numerous country houses and the Soane tomb - one of only two tombs in London listed Grade I. |
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Soane’s pre-eminent collections survive intact and can be seen displayed in the same authentic arrangements as he determined before his death in 1837. The collections are also inseparable from the architecture of the Museum which is a Grade I building of outstanding originality, with its Picturesque vistas and inventive handling of light and space. |
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In 1837, Soane left £30,000 with which his Museum was to be maintained. The Trustees were able to honour his trust over a century, but only by using much of the capital, and this continued until World War II when the Museum was closed.
In 1945 the income was insufficient to enable it to re-open and the Treasury agreed to make an annual grant to the Museum. It now receives annual grant-in-aid from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport covering its main operating costs, supplemented largely by self-generated income, donations and fundraising. |
William IV 1837 sovereign |
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Over the last twenty years, Sir John Soane’s Museum has changed from an obscure but much-loved ‘hidden gem’ to a cult museum, a highly inspirational place to visit that is mentioned in every guidebook to London and attracts tens of thousands of visitors from the UK and all over the world every year.
The Museum now welcomes over 90,000 visitors per annum – almost the same number as Petworth House in Sussex, which is at least six times the size. They visit the Museum free of charge, just as Soane wished, but inevitably cause a corresponding amount of wear and tear on its fabric and contents. For comparison, there were about 10,000 visitors per annum in the 1950s, 20,000 p.a. in 1970 and 30,000 p.a. in 1980. |
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