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James Paine’s Design for the South Front of Kedleston Hall: Dating and Sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Peter Leach
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Extract

The building of Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire was a complicated process and the story has been told on a number of occasions. Briefly, the course of events appears to have been as follows. The future first Lord Scarsdale inherited in November 1758 and started building the new house very shortly afterwards, beginning with the north-east wing: his architect was Matthew Brettingham and designs for interior decoration had been provided by James Stuart. In December, however, Scarsdale consulted Robert Adam, inviting his comments on Brettingham’s and Stuart’s proposals and commissioning designs for garden buildings from him. After early 1759 Brettingham’s services were evidently dispensed with, Stuart having already ceased to be involved, and James Paine was engaged: he produced revised designs for the house which were exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1761 and took charge of the building of the north-west wing, his employment lasting until early in 1763. Meanwhile, also in 1759, work began on the body of the house under the supervision of the clerk of works, Abraham Swan, and Adam began to supply designs for interior decoration; and by the following summer Adam was producing further designs for the house itself to succeed Paine’s and Swan had been succeeded as clerk of works by Samuel Wyatt. Under this regime the house was completed structurally c. 1765, but the southern wings and quadrants were not built and work on the interior decoration was to continue for another fifteen years.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 40 , 1997 , pp. 159 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1997

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References

Notes

1 See e.g. Pevsner, N. and Williamson, E., The Buildings of England: Derbyshire, 2nd edn (Harmondsworth, 1978), pp. 255-58Google Scholar; Hardy, J. and Hayward, H., ‘Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire’, Country Life, CLXIII (1978), pp. 194-97, 262-66, 322–25Google Scholar; Harris, L., Robert Adam and Kedleston (London, 1987), pp. 9–12 Google Scholar; Leach, P., James Vaine (London, 1988), pp. 89–91, 190-91Google Scholar.

2 Royal Academy, Society of Artists Exhibition Catalogues; Leach, Paine, p. 218. The designs were described in the catalogue as for ‘a house designed in the year 1759 for a person of distinction in the County of Derby’ — which can only be Kedleston — and consisted of a plan, an elevation of the garden front and a section.

3 Paine, J., Plans, Elevations and Sections of Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Houses, 11 (London, 1783), pls 44–45, 50-51Google Scholar.

4 Colvin, H. M., A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 3rd edn (New Haven and London, 1995) pp. 1107, 1114Google Scholar; Leach, Paine, p. 167. Other examples include Bowden House, Wiltshire (1796), Spetchley Park, Hereford and Worcester (1811), Willey Park, Shropshire (1813), and Holwood House, Kent (1823).

5 The writer recalls a conversation on the subject with Sir John Summerson in 1975.

6 See also e.g. Summerson, John, ‘The classical country house in 18th-century England — II’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, CVII (1959), pp. 554-69Google Scholar.

7 Webster, C., ‘Architectural Illustration as Revenge: James Paine’s Designs for Kedleston’, The Image of the Building: Papers from the Annual Symposium of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1995, ed. Howard, M. (1996), pp. 83–92 Google Scholar.

8 Paine, , Plans, 1 (London, 1767), p. iv Google Scholar.

9 Paine, , Plans, 1, pls 1–7 Google Scholar.

10 Paine, , Plans, 11, pls 30–41 Google Scholar; Leach, Paine, pp. 92-98, 213-15.

11 Paine, , Plans, 11, pls 1–16 Google Scholar; Leach, Paine, pp. 77-79, 216-17.

12 Paine, , Plans, 11, pls 17–29 Google Scholar; Leach, Paine, pp. 80-82, 211.

13 Woolfe, J. and Gandon, J., Vitruvius Britannicus, IV (London, 1767), pls 49–50 Google Scholar.

14 Paine, , Plans, 11, p. iii Google Scholar.

15 Leach, Paine, pp. 36-38.

16 Rowan, A. J., ‘After the Adelphi: the forgotten years of the Adam brothers’ practice — I’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, CXXII (1974), p. 667 Google Scholar.

17 Rowan, ‘Adelphi’, pp. 659-76; Colvin, Dictionary, pp. 51-54.

18 Webster, ‘Architectural Illustration’, p. 85.

19 See Leach, Paine, passim.

20 Paine, , Plans, 1, pls 15–25 Google Scholar; Leach, Paine, pp. 63-65, 186-87.

21 Paine, , Plans, 1, pls 53–55 Google Scholar; Leach, Paine, pp. 72-74, 177-78.

22 Hardy and Hayward, ‘Kedleston Hall’, p. 263.

23 Woolfe, and Gandon, , Vitruvius Britannicus, IV, pl. 46 Google Scholar.

24 Adam, R., Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro (London, 1764), pp. 19–33 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Kedleston Hall, Scarsdale Papers, design for an octagonal room; Harris, Adam and Kedleston, p. 19. The majority opinion is that of Harris, the writer and the late Mr Gervase Jackson-Stops.

26 Harris, Adam and Kedleston, p. 23; Leach, Paine, p. 91.

27 Webster, ‘Architectural Illustration’, p. 85.

28 di Burlington, Riccardo Conte, Fabbriche Antiche Disegnate da Andrea Palladio Vicentino (London, c. 1740)Google Scholar; Leach, Paine, pp. 43, 48, 65, 72, 85, 91.

29 Harris, J., William Taiman (London, 1982), pp. 36–37, pls 53-54Google Scholar; Colvin, Dictionary, p. 952.

30 Leach, Paine, pp. 56, 175-76.

31 Leach, Paine, pp. 55-56, 210.

32 Binney, M., Sir Robert Taylor (London, 1984), pp. 39–54, pls 40, 46, 50, 55Google Scholar.

33 Oswald, A., ‘Euston Park, Suffolk — III’, Country Life, CXXI (1957), pp. 148-51Google Scholar.

34 Leach, Paine, p. 26. Paine was en route to Italy.

35 Webster, ‘Architectural Illustration’, p. 87.

36 Leigh, and Sotheby, , A Catalogue of the Genuine and Valuable Library of James Paine, Esq . . . To which is added the Remaining Part of the Library and Manuscripts of Mademoiselle La Chevaliere d’Eou . . . (London, 1793)Google Scholar. The positive value of the catalogue as evidence of the contents of Paine’s library is limited, as the two collections are listed together, but there is no reference to Neufforge.

37 Blunt, A., Art and Architecture in France 1500-1700, 2nd edn (Harmondsworth, 1970), pp. 139-42Google Scholar.

38 Kalnein, W. and Levey, M., Art and Architecture of the Eighteenth Century in France (Harmondsworth, 1972), pp. 229-30, 243-45Google Scholar.

39 Leach, Paine, p. 91.

40 Palladio, A., The Four Books of Architecture, ed. Ware, I. (London, 1738), IV, pls 34–36, 65-68Google Scholar.

41 Paine, , Plans, 11, pl. 52 Google Scholar.

42 Palladio, , Four Books, IV, pls 51–60 Google Scholar.

43 Palladio, , Four Books, IV, pls 1–3 Google Scholar.

44 Paine, , Plans, 1, pls 37–40 Google Scholar; Leach, Paine, pp. 61-63, 208-09.

46 Leach, Paint, pp. 20-21.

47 Paine, Plans, 1, p. i.

48 Woolfe, and Gandon, , Vitruvius Britannkus, IV, pp. 8–9 Google Scholar.

49 Paine, , Plans, II, pls 48–49 Google Scholar.

50 Woolfe, and Gandon, , Vitruvius Britannicus, IV, pls 47–48 Google Scholar.

51 Paine, , Plans, 1, p. i Google Scholar; R., and Adam, J., The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, ed. Oresko, R. (London, 1975), pp. 45–46 Google Scholar.

51 Paine, , Plans, 1, p. i Google Scholar; R., and Adam, J., The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, ed. Oresko, R. (London, 1975), pp. 45–46 Google Scholar.