British Architects of the late eighteenth Century

Important architectural drawings held by Sir John Soane’s Museum will form a new exhibition at the Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin. The exhibition illustrates the ambition of leading British architects of the late 18^th century who strove to create new architecture in the Classical tradition that could compete – in terms of public works, private houses, mausolea, interior detail and even furnishings – with the glories of the Ancient World. Illustrating this central theme, some of the finest drawings and designs by Sir John Soane, Robert Adam, George Dance the Younger, Sir William Chambers and James Wyatt will be shown for the first time in Germany. In Pursuit of Antiquity will focus on Ancient Rome and its great monuments as a source of inspiration to the architectural students of the 18^th and 19^th centuries who studied and drew these structures as part of their education. The exhibition will also explore the idea of an architectural drawing – from sketch to final presentation. Drawings by French and Italian artists such as Percier, Clérisseau and the great Piranesi, all represented in Soane’s collection, will illustrate the links between these architects and British architects.