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Newsletter

SIR JOHN SOANE'S MUSEUM NEWSLETTER
NO.14 - SPRING 2007


CONTENTS

A LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

It's 2007 and Sir John Soane's Museum is buzzing with visitors and new initiatives. Last year, we welcomed over 90,000 visitors to the Museum, the largest number since records began. Visions of World Architecture, an exhibition of Soane's extraordinary lecture illustrations opened in January, while last week we unveiled Soane and Turner: Illuminating a Friendship, exploring the close relationship between Soane and the painter J M W Turner. Tate Britain's generous loan of Turner's Forum Romanum and other works, provides us with some consolation for the temporary, three-month loan of our great series, A Rake's Progress and An Election, to the exhibition Hogarth being held at Tate Britain. More on all these exhibitions later on. But in early February the Museum also received the sad news of the death of Peter Kai Thornton, cbe, Curator of Sir John Soane's Museum between 1984 and 1995. A short but heartfelt tribute to Peter, who died on 8 February 2007 after a long illness, can be found on page 3 of this Newsletter.


Bocca della Verità in the Colonnade (see Museum and Galleries Month)

In February we also welcome a new member of staff, Dr Stephanie Coane, who will take up the post of Librarian to Sir John Soane's Museum. The purpose of this three-year contract is to complete the work of putting the catalogue of Soane's library online, building on the valuable work of Nick Savage, Eileen Harris and Stephen Massil. Stephanie (or Stephie as she prefers to be known) comes to the Soane from Harrow Reference Library, via the Warburg Institute Library. She has a DPhil in French Literature from Oxford (specialising in eighteenth-century French explorers in the Pacific), and an MA in Library and Information Studies from University College, London. She has wide-ranging interests in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century culture, and has particularly impressed me as being able to identify the Northumbrian castle in the background of a photograph of my dachshund Tiger when we met for lunch to discuss the new role a few weeks ago! We are all greatly looking forward to working with Stephie and watching the results of her labours appear on the Soane website.

Next month Sir John Soane's Museum will again be recruiting, this time for an Education Manager to head the burgeoning education programme at the Museum. Education at the Soane takes many forms, catering for individuals, families, schools, colleges and community groups, as well as out- reach initiatives and projects for youth associations and special needs groups. The new Education Manager will work with Jane Monahan, Schools and Families Education Officer, and Will Palin, our Exhibition and Education Curator, overseeing the planning, development and implementation of an expanding programme of events and courses for the public, schools and families. They will also play a major part in setting up and managing the Museum's new dedicated Education Centre, opening in late 2007 in No. 14 Lincoln's Inn Fields. Our ideal candidate will be a graduate with a minimum of two years' experience in working in a team environment, with excellent communication, administrative and IT skills. Advertisements for the post will appear on our website (www.soane.org) at the end of February.

Mention of the new Education Centre in No. 14 Lincoln's Inn Fields reminds us of what a marvellous facility the new house will be when it gets handed over to us in the Autumn of 2007. We are now in the 38th week of the 56-week building contract and I am pleased to report that we are on time and within budget. Our builders, the old established firm of E Fuller and Sons of Walthamstow, have completed most of the major interventions in the building - the roof, structural repairs and the provision of a new skylight - while services engineers are nearing the end of their work installing electrical, security and fire prevention sys-tems. The scaffolding has been struck and the rooms on the upper floors are almost complete - Fullers are gradually working their way down the building and are now poised to embark on repairs to the staircase and the reinstatement of the area railings and balcony. We are also looking forward to the return of the superb but faded mahogany doors and shutters to the first floor drawing rooms - they are currently away being repaired and coaxed back to life by Peter Holmes of Arlington Conservation Ltd. When we get possession of the building later this year, the work of moving into No. 14 and fitting it up as splendid new facilities for education and research will take time - and money. If you would like to know more about the sponsorship opportunities in No. 14 please contact me or Mike Nicholson in the Development Office.

Alongside these exciting new developments, we have also been looking at ways that the Soane Museum can help itself. Open free to the public - as Soane himself wished - the Museum struggles to survive even with a generous 75 per cent contribution to its salary and running costs from the DCMS. Exhibitions, conservation projects, research and interpretation of the house and its collections all have to be funded by a combination of grants, profits from shop sales, venue hire, and donations. The Museum has long been keen to improve its shop, and sell a wider range of Soane-related merchandise, as well as making items available to a wider audience via our website. We are also aware that we are seriously lagging behind in what we charge for dinners and other events in what is surely the most atmospheric setting in London. To help us, assisted by a generous grant from the Fidelity UK Foundation, we hired Selina Fellows, an independent retail marketing consultant, to carry out a comprehensive review of the Museum's commercial activities. Her report, received earlier this year, will guide us in a major review of our commercial activities. Selina has already made recommendations about charges for venue hire which will be implemented in the new financial year, together with improvements to the facilities we offer. Charles Marsden-Smedley is working on ways we can improve the Soane shop, while Selina and Susan Bogue, our House Manager, will be developing a new range of merchandise. It is highly possible that Fanny, the Soanes' beloved dog, will feature on products, alongside more serious, architectural motifs drawn from Soane, Adam and Piranesi. Efforts are also being made to develop licensing of Soane designs, and improvements to the website will enable people to support the Museum by making it easier to buy Soane products. Guided by Selina, who is now acting as consultant to the Museum, there is much we can do sympathetically and stylishly to exploit the huge popularity of Soane and his Museum - all the while remaining true to our founder's wishes and its precious and idiosyncratic atmosphere. Once again, all these initiatives cost money. If anyone is interested in helping the Museum help itself, or has good practical ideas, please contact me or the Soane Development Office.

Finally, you will have noticed that this quarter's Newsletter is sent to you with leaflets promoting one of our sister organisations, the Victorian Society. This is part of a reciprocal agreement with these worthwhile causes - they will promote the Soane Supporters' Circle in their mailings. None of your personal details have been given out to other organisations, it just makes sense that we should help promote each other. Hopefully, Soane Supporters will be interested in supporting their important work too.

Tim Knox



Photograph: Lena Spindler

PETER KAI THORNTON 1925-2007

The death of Peter Thornton on 8 February marks the end of an era and is a particular sadness to those of us who had the privilege of working under him at the Soane where he was Curator from 1984 to 1995. Arriving from the V&A, where had worked as Keeper of Furniture and Woodwork since 1966, he was the first non-architect to become Curator, taking over from Sir John Summerson.

Peter instigated and oversaw a huge programme of repair and restoration at the Museum, combining his formidable expertise with a detailed study of Soane's watercolour views, early inventories and photographs to return the interiors to their original state. Among the rooms he meticulously restored, re-creating their original colour schemes and arrangements of objects, were the two Drawing Rooms, the Picture Room, the Study and Dressing Room (which he narrowed to their original dimensions), the Dome area, the New Picture Room, the Ante-Room and the No. 12 Breakfast Room.

Other key projects undertaken by Peter included the instigation of a new cataloguing programme and the creation of a purpose-built gallery for temporary exhibitions. The new Soane Gallery, designed by Eva Jiricna, was opened in 1995, the year of his retirement.

No one who worked for Peter will ever forget him. His enthusiasm was boundless and the distinctive three rings on the front doorbell which signalled his arrival in the Museum usually unleashed a whirlwind of activity! As the Soane's activities continue to expand it is a measure of his achievement that the principles of authentic restoration he laid down still underpin everything we do here. What's more, the cataloguing projects and exhibition programme initiated by Peter are now central to the life and work of the Museum.

Helen Dorey

A full tribute will appear in the Soane Annual Report

HOUSE AND COLLECTION

Conservation of the Frame of George Jones's The Smoking House at Chelsea Hospital

Soane commissioned this picture, showing a group of pensioners from the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, in 1834. Soane was Clerk of Works of the Hospital and the scene shows pensioners describing the battle of Corunna, which took place during the Peninsular War on 16 January 1809, between the British under Sir John Moore and the French army led by Marshal Soult. Soane perhaps recalled just such a discussion - in 1809 he was overseeing the building of the Infirmary at Chelsea.
In September the picture returned to the Soane after a period of almost seven years during which its fragile frame with its complex composition (plaster) mouldings was conserved and repaired by Clare Kooy-Lister. The work was carried out over a prolonged period in order to spread its cost to the Museum.

The first stage in the restoration was to strip later layers of gold paint and varnish from the frame, revealing the original gilt surface and showing that about 40 per cent of the decorative mouldings on the frame were crude replacements.

All the mouldings, except for those at the mitres (corners) were removed from the frame, so that the gesso ground could be repaired (about 75 per cent of it was missing). All the original bits of decorative moulding then had to be re-attached and Clare then recreated the missing bits - taking moulds from the surviving sections and casting new pieces.

Soane hung the picture in the Morning Room on the second floor to where it will return once this room is restored and opened to the public.


The frame of The Smoking House at Chelsea after conservation


A Notorious Portrait of Sir John Soane: Discovery of a Surviving Fragment

In the Morning Chronicle 1 May 1836 a report of the destruction of a portrait of Sir John Soane by Daniel Maclise appeared under the headline 'Singular Outrage on a Picture'.

The portrait had been commissioned in 1834 by the Committee of the Literary Fund, 'wishing to pay Sir John Soane a compliment in acknowledgement of his liberal patronage'. Soane sat for Maclise several times between 9 July and 3 September. The picture was completed, as far as the Literary Fund knew to the satisfaction of Soane, framed and hung on the walls of the Fund's rooms. Correspondence in the letters pages of the Times in May 1836 records what followed. W C Taylor, writing on behalf of the Literary Fund, explains that Sir John Soane's dissatisfaction with the picture was reported to the Committee 'verbally' and it was resolved by a majority after a long debate to inform Mr Maclise of this difficulty. That 'admirable artist and truly excellent man' replied that his design in presenting the portrait was simply to serve the institution and willingly agreed to its being replaced by another. Maclise suggested that the picture be returned to him as he had received from Soane 'no intimation of his desire to possess the same'. Copies of this letter and of the Committee's resolution to this effect were supplied to Soane officially but he did not 'deign to reply' either to the Committee or to Maclise. Two months later at the Committee's March meeting 'a person claiming to represent Soane' announced that unless Soane 'obtained the picture immediately and unreservedly he would withdraw his patronage from the institution, withhold an intended bequest and appeal to the public'. Mr Taylor reports that he gave notice of a motion marking the committee's sense of such menace and insult but 'the Saturday night before my motion could be discussed a Mr Jerdan gained admission to the rooms and destroyed the picture'. He adds that he is resolved to place the whole history of the matter before the public to demonstrate that neither the committee nor the institution 'would stoop to accept money by the sacrifice of principle'. He adds that 'a person obtaining admission to a house at a late hour of the night and wilfully destroying property . . . [is] guilty of felony'.

The Mr Jerdan who destroyed the picture was William Jerdan (1782-1869), the editor of the Literary Gazette from 1817 to 1850. The question of whether or not he was acting on Soane's behalf will probably never be resolved: no Soane diaries survive for 1836.

Helen Dorey discovered a fragment of the portrait amongst the Maclise material in the archives of the V&A at the end of last year. This melancholy remnant is titled 'Sir John Soane's Thumb' and accompanied by a note (perhaps in Maclise's hand) setting out the sad tale of the portrait and its destruction. By looking at an etching of Soane by Maclise, presumably after the lost portrait, it is possible to see where the thumb was placed. The etching was published in Fraser's Magazine in 1836. It may have been the distribution of the etching which led to comments being made to Soane about the unflattering nature of the image. The text accompanying the fragment mentions that 'Sir John being blind or nearly so could not judge of its merits himself.'

Helen Dorey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES MONTH 2007

This year, in May, the Soane Museum will once again participate in Museums and Galleries Month, an annual celebration organised by the Museums Archives and Libraries Council. This year's MGM theme, 'People - who are we?', is more than usually accommodating and elastic, and the Soane is taking the opportunity to take a look at portraits, heads and masks in the museum. From the anguished Roman marble fountain mask - the Soane's very own Bocca della Verità - in the Colonnade, to Soane's own sardonic countenance in his bravura portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence in the Library-Dining Room, visitors to the Museum are surrounded by 'graven images' of people. During May, a free leaflet will invite visitors to follow a trail exploring the stories behind the masks.

Tim Knox


EXHIBITION NEWS

A Passion for Building: The Amateur Architect in Eighteenth-Century England

18 May to 1 September 2007

In May the Museum opens a new exhibition exploring the great English tradition of the amateur architect. The exhibition will celebrate the most gifted, inventive and eccentric amateurs of the 18th and early 19th centuries with a selection of drawings, engravings and portraits gathered from Soane's collection and other museums, archives and private houses around the country. Thanks to a grant from the Designation Challenge Fund the exhibition will travel to two other regional venues during 2007 and 2008.


An amazing engraving of Theodore Jacobsen's design for the Royal Hospital, Haslar

'In England more than in any other country, every man would fain to be his own architect,' remarked the Swiss J A Rouquet in 1755. Thomas Worsley (1711-78) was the epitome of this new breed of amateur. When appointed in 1760 by George III to the political post of Surveyor General of the Royal Works, Worsley's love of building was matched only by his passion for horses. He rebuilt his Hovingham Hall in Yorkshire so that his guests would enter through a grand riding school attached to stables.

The exhibition identifies pockets of the country, such as Oxford and Yorkshire, where the influence of amateurs was particularly effective, and is full of great personalities, including the eccentric pugilist parson Sir Thomas Parkyns (1662-1741) who built Bunney Hall, Nottinghamshire in a wild Baroque style; Ada Augusta Byron, Lady Lovelace, only daughter of the poet, one of the pioneers of computer science and architect of Ashley Combe, a romantic rambling antique Roman retreat on a Somerset cliff top; or the fabulous Sara Losh, whose church, cemetery, and mausoleum at Wreay in Cumbria raise her to the heights of genius and invention.

This exhibition will showcase over 30 drawings, engravings, portraits and books. The curator and author of the catalogue is the distinguished architectural historian John Harris, the leading authority on English 18th-century architecture, assisted by Robert Hradsky. The exhibition was instigated by the late Dr Giles Worsley and will be affectionately dedicated to his memory.

More information

SOANE SUPPORTERS' CIRCLE

This year promises to see the Soane Supporters' Circle making a greater impact on fundraising for the Museum. Whilst the number of new subscribers continues to rise, many existing Supporters are also helping by renewing their memberships for another year, which is very good news. And with online support on its way, we are confident that the amount of money raised by the Supporters' Circle will increase dramatically in 2007.

The recent repair work to the beautiful chandeliers in the North and South Drawing Rooms and the restoration of the frame for the important oil painting by George Jones, The Smoking House at Chelsea (see Museum News), are examples of projects with which the Soane Supporters' Circle is able to help. These might seem like small differences in the greater scheme of things, but the care of these important items can all too often be overlooked. We are delighted that, with Supporters' help, we will be able to continue and expand our programme of restoration, conservation and repair.

Claudia Celder, Development Officer

Join the Supporters' Circle


DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Tivoli Recess Boost

Following the recent grant of £100,000 from the Wolfson/DCMS Challenge Fund towards the recreation and refurbishment of the Tivoli Recess - 'London's lost gallery' - I am pleased to report a generous donation of $100,000 from the Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation. This means that we are just over halfway with our fundraising for this project with another £150,000 still to be raised. If you would like to help with this project or know anyone who might be interested in becoming involved in any way, please let me know.

Bar and Bench

As part of the Museum's programme to foster better links with our neighbours, we recently hosted a reception for Barristers and Judges from surrounding Chambers. The evening was a great success with over 70 members of the Bar attending to hear a talk by Soane's biographer, Gillian Darley, and enjoy a tour of the Museum. In the library, guests were able to view a fascinating display of material relating to the history of Lincoln's Inn Fields and the surrounding area. The event attracted many new members to the Supporters' Circle as well as stimulating interest in hiring the Museum for dinners or receptions.

Library Catalogue Project

An anonymous donor has kindly donated £35,000 to help the Museum to employ a librarian to work on completing the cataloguing of Soane's Library, and making this information freely available online. The Museum now has two years of funding in place for this post but still needs to raise funds for the third year. If there are any keen bibliophiles who might be able to help with this important project, we would like to hear from you.


A Mexican room from Description and History of the Taste of Leading Nations
by J F F Racknitz, one the books already in the online catalogue

New York Gala

Following on from the success of the Gala in November 2005, Sir John Soane's Museum Foundation are organising a second Gala on 25 April. This will take place in the Rainbow Room on the 75th floor of the Rockefeller Center in New York. The last Gala raised over $100,000 for the Museum and we hope that this next one will be even more successful. The UK Ambassador to the US, Sir David Manning will be among the honoured guests. Tickets for the event cost $600.00 and are still available. I know that our friends in New York will give a particularly warm welcome to visitors from the UK who are able to join the party - or perhaps you have friends or colleagues in New York who might like to attend. Please contact me for further details.

For further details about any of the above projects or to discuss how you might be able to help the Museum, please contact Mike Nicholson, Development Director, 020 7440 4241 or by email

BRITAIN'S BEST MUSEUM

Vote Sir John Soane's Museum Britain's Best historical site with UKTV History!


This year Sir John Soane's Museum will be involved in UKTV History's Britain's Best campaign which aims to find the nation's favourite historical site. Hosted by Alan Titchmarsh, the campaign will involve two television series and a final programme presenting the winner as decided by you and the British public!

As someone who values Sir John Soane's Museum, it would be great if you could take the time to vote for us from March 16th to August 27th by either:

- visiting www.uktvhistory.co.uk and registering your vote

- text 'BEST SIR JOHN SOANE'S MUSEUM' to 83222 (texts cost 50p plus standard network charges)

- calling 09011 31 2007 and quoting Sir John Soane's Museum (calls cost 50p)

- or visiting us and posting your freepost postcard which is available at the Musuem (available from April 5th).

- For those of you who have Sky, you can also vote using your Red Button.

UKTV History is also launching a Britain's Best directory on www.uktvhistory.co.uk that will help you find some of the best historical locations to visit across the UK, as well as reviews, pictures and videos for each place from people who have actually been there.

Don't forget to watch Britain's Best on UKTV History (Sky channel 537, Virgin TV 203 and Freeview 12) from April 9th to May 20th and from July 23rd to August 27th, and don't miss the final result on September 17th to see if we've won!

Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3BP. Tel: 020 7405 2107