Spend an hour in the Soane Museum Research Library looking at drawings with the curator of our exhibition Fanciful Figures.

Frances Sands, Curator of Drawings and Books, will show you a selection of beautiful drawings which could not be shoehorned into the show. The use of staffage figures in architectural drawings was in full swing by the later decades of the eighteenth century, and so there are numerous beautiful and fascinating examples among the Soane Museum’s collection. During this session we will look at examples from the offices of Robert Adam, George Dance and John Soane himself. We will also peruse examples of architectural publications from this period which use figures. And finally, as a very special grand finale, we will look at an extremely early example of staffage figures in an Elizabethan architectural drawing, by the architect John Thorpe.

There are two sessions, which can be booked below. 

Book for 11am-12pm visit
Book for 2pm-3pm visit

About the speaker

Dr Frances Sands is Curator of Drawings and Books at Sir John Soane's Museum. She has worked at rhe Museum since 2010, first as Catalogue Editor, tasked with cataloguing the office drawings collection of Robert and James Adam – a vast project which is still ongoing. In 2016 she was appointed the Curator of Drawings and Books, taking responsibility for the Soane Museum’s wider collection of 30,000 drawings and 7,000 books. She has curated various exhibitions and publishes and lectures widely. Since 2010, Fran has also served as a Trustee of the York Georgian Society, the Mausolea and Monuments Trust, the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, and sat on the advisory committee for the Grinling Gibbons Society’s Tercentenary exhibition.

About the event

There are two sessions, at 11am-12pm and 2pm-3pm. They will take place in the Research Library which is located at Number 14, Lincoln's Inn Fields.  Please enter via Number 14 Lincoln's Inn Fields where we will have a list of names on the door. Your confirmation email serves as your ticket. 

We are in a Grade I listed, 19th-century building, so access is not always straightforward. If you require step-free access or extra assistance, please contact us in advance of your booking on admin@soane.org.uk or 020 7405 2107.

Image: Joseph Michael Gandy & Antonio Van Assen for Sir John Soane, Tyringham Sepulchral Chapel, interior (detail), 1801, SM 13/5/7