Town Houses & Public Commissions

collection, history, periods, styles, 18th, eighteenth, century, james, athenian, stuart, architecture, interiors, decorative arts

  • Front elevation, 15 St James's Square

    Front elevation, 15 St James's Square, London, James Stuart, 1764-6

    Front elevation
    15 St James's Square, London
    James Stuart
    1764-6
    Photographed in 2006

    The most distinctive of Stuart's London houses was Lichfield House, built for Thomas Anson. Stuart called the capitals on the façade 'the greatest grace and ornament of the building'. They were copies of the capitals of the portico of Minerva Polias in Athens. This was the first time the Greek Ionic order had been used in a London building.

  • Antiquities of Athens, vol 2

    Antiquities of Athens, vol 2, James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, about 1790. Courtesy of the Library, The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York, © BGC / Bruce White

    Antiquities of Athens, volume 2
    James Stuart and Nicholas Revett
    About 1790
    Published in London by John Nichols
    Courtesy of the Library, The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York
    © BGC / Bruce White

    This opening shows the Ionic order of the portico of Minerva Polias, which Stuart used in the main elevation of Lichfield House.

  • 'Drawings…Collected cheifly [sic] from Noble-mens Houses', John Carter

    'Drawings…Collected cheifly [sic] from Noble-mens Houses', John Carter, 1766. Museum no. D.386-1890

    'Drawings…Collected cheifly [sic] from Noble-mens Houses'
    John Carter
    1766
    Pen and ink, ink wash
    Museum no. D.386-1890

    The boudoir ceiling at Holdernesse House was similar to others that Stuart designed for Montagu House and Belvedere House. A visiting architect, John Carter, sketched a portion of the ceiling ornament in 1766. Carter made twenty-one drawings of the ornamental details of the house. These serve as the only record of several rooms lost in a later rebuilding.

  • Music room, Lichfield House

    Music room, Lichfield House, James Stuart, 1764-6. Altered by Samuel Wyatt, 1791-4. Courtesy of City of London, London Metropolitan Archives

    Music room, Lichfield House
    James Stuart
    1764-6
    Altered by Samuel Wyatt
    1791-4
    Courtesy of City of London, London Metropolitan Archives

    The ceiling of the music room at Lichfield House is comparable to the boudoir ceiling at Holdernesse House in its basic pattern: a deep cove surrounding a flat area framed by a beamlike rib. Unlike at Holdernesse House, however, there is no coffering, and the residual spaces are filled by shallow arabesques.

  • Main drawing room, Lichfield House

    Main drawing room, Lichfield House, James Stuart, 1764-6. Courtesy of City of London, London Metropolitan Archives

    Main drawing room, Lichfield House
    James Stuart
    1764-6
    Ceiling panels painted by Biagio Rebecca, 1794
    Photographed in 1958
    Courtesy of City of London, London Metropolitan Archives

    Throughout his career Stuart tended to reuse successful designs with only minor modifications. The ceiling of the first-floor front room at Lichfield House is very similar to the central section of the drawing room at Holdernesse House.

  • Chimneypiece in the main drawing room, Lichfield house

    Chimneypiece in the main drawing room, Lichfield house, James Stuart, 1764-6. Courtesy of City of London, London Metropolitan Archives

    Chimneypiece in the main drawing room
    Lichfield house
    James Stuart
    1764-6
    Carving attributed to the Scheemakers workshop
    Photographed in 1958
    Courtesy of City of London, London Metropolitan Archives

    The white marble chimneypiece in the main drawing room is almost identical to that in the Great Room at Spencer House, with its figures of Bacchus and the lion taken from the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens. At Lichfield House, however, the masks on the capitals are female, rather than Apollonian.