Spang - Architectural Sculpture for Robert Adam.
The Screen to the Admiralty, Whitehall.
Drawing of the Admiralty Screen from the Adam Offices.
Agostino Brunias c. 1760.
It would appear that the statuary was never introduced into the screen.
Adam produced individual drawings for engraving and sale.
This was done in the case of the Admiralty Screen, his first executed public
commission in London, of which he was apparently exceedingly proud.
Thomas Ripley’s Admiralty was built in 1723-26, but its boundary wall was demolished for street widening in 1759, prompting Adam’s commission to build a screen. This view by the Adam office draughtsman, Agostino Brunias, was made for publication, and shows the Screen as executed, albeit with additional sculptural ornament. There is evidence that the sheet was folded four times, most likely when it was sent to Francis Patton to be engraved for publication.
Thomas Ripley’s Admiralty was built in 1723-26, but its boundary wall was demolished for street widening in 1759, prompting Adam’s commission to build a screen. This view by the Adam office draughtsman, Agostino Brunias, was made for publication, and shows the Screen as executed, albeit with additional sculptural ornament. There is evidence that the sheet was folded four times, most likely when it was sent to Francis Patton to be engraved for publication.
The
Admiralty Screen engravings were sold from February 1761 at Andrew Millar’s
bookshop on the Strand for 2s.6d. -
Adam Office Drawings.
Working Drawing
Pen and Wash
Drawing from The Adam Office
Government Art Collection.
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Details from the Admiralty Screen designed by Robert Adam and executed by Spang.
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Unexecuted Design for the Monument to James Thomson
Office of Robert Adam.
Soane Museum.
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Spang and the monument to James Thomson
Westminster Abbey.
Spang and the monument to James Thomson
Westminster Abbey.
James Thomson
Monument
Carved by Spang
designed by Adam
Westminster Abbey
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Allegorical figures of the seasons, Summer and Spring to
left, lifting a garland to adorn a plinth supporting a bust of Thomson while
Autumn standing on the right holding a cornucopia, crowns it with laurel,
watched by Winter, a cloaked male figure standing behind; with bas-relief
portraits of Bartolozzi, Hamilton and Tomkins in plaques below; after Hamilton;
frontispiece to 'The seasons' by James Thomson (London: 1797). 1798
Etching and stipple
British Museum
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James Thomson
by Stephen Slaughter (1697 - 1765)
775 x 641 mm
Oil on Canvas
1736.
Yale Centre for British Art.
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James Thomson
by Stephen Slaughter (1697 - 1765)
775 x 641 mm
Oil on Canvas
1736.
Yale Centre for British Art.
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James Thomson
Anonymous Marble Relief
533 x457 mm
It is incised Scotland gave me birth / England a Grave / I Sung the Seasons.
Collections: bought, 1972, through David Peel and Co, Christie's, 20 June, lot 197; from the collection of A.G. Kilroy, previous history unknown.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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