Ground Floor Plan of a Swiss barn
Unknown architect
Category
Architecture / Drawings
Date
circa 1775 - 1800
Materials
Pen and ink with coloured washes
Measurements
280 x 355 mm
Place of origin
Switzerland
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 206259
Summary
Unknown architect. Ground floor plan of a Swiss barn, circa 1775-1800, inscribed with the function of each room marked in German and translated in pencil and the overall dimensions of the building given - 'Long 74 feet', 'Whole Breadth 40 feet', pen and ink with coloured washes (280 x 355mm)
Full description
At the house end of the building the rooms, four per floor, are arranged to either side of a wide central passage, which meets a narrower, staired, service passage that crosses the building at the stable end. We know from a letter written by John Soane in September 1800 that he had borrowed a group of five drawings of a Swiss farm building (NT 206258; NT 206291.1 -2; NT 206259 and NT 206260) from his client, Philip Yorke, and was sufficiently impressed by them to make his own reference copies. Whilst it is tempting to assume that the drawings might have influenced the design of the Great Barn at Wimpole (1794), it is unlikely that the meticulous John Soane would have retained the drawings for six years before returning them. It is more likely that the loan reflects an interest shared between the architect and his client in finding a simple ‘classical’ vernacular appropriate for agricultural buildings. Catalogue entry adapted from David Adshead, Wimpole Architectural drawings and topographical views, The National Trust, 2007
Provenance
Philip Yorke, 3rd Earl of Hardwicke, KG, MP, FRS, FSA, (1757–1834); bequeathed by Elsie Kipling, Mrs George Bambridge (1896 – 1976), daughter of Rudyard Kipling, to the National Trust together with Wimpole Hall, all its contents and an estate of 3000 acres.
Marks and inscriptions
Below scale: Long 74 feet Left hand side: Whole Breadth 40 feet
Makers and roles
Unknown architect, draughtsman
References
Adshead 2007: David Adshead, Wimpole Architectural drawings and topographical views, The National Trust, 2007, p.139, no. 321 du Prey, 1979: Pierre de la Ruffiniere du Prey 'John Soane, Philip Yorke and their Quest for Primitive Architecture' National Trust Studies, 1979., pp.28 - 38, fig. 12