The exhibition will be on display from the 4th March until the 28th June.
Marking 300 years since his death, the Sir John Soane Museum will present an exhibition celebrating the career of one of the UK’s greatest architects, Sir John Vanbrugh.
Spoken as ‘The Rockstar of the English Baroque’ and ‘The original starchitect’, Vanbrugh designed some of the most admired and loved country houses, including Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, with each one featuring his signature ability.
During his own career, Sir John Soane (1753-1837) cited Vanbrugh as one of his great influences, remarking that he had “all the fire and power of Michelangelo and Bernini”.
The exhibition will include never-before-exhibited drawings from the collections of the V&A, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the National Portrait Gallery and Sir John Soane’s Museum, including many in Vanbrugh’s own hand. It is an opportunity to see a selection of Vanbrugh’s drawings for major projects like Castle Howard, but also smaller, more experimental plans for schemes such as the housing estate he envisaged at Greenwich.
Vanbrugh: The Drama of Architecture is a title that was selected as he was also one of the country’s great Restoration dramatists, with his architectural work just as bold and daring as his risqué plays, such as The Provoked Wife (1697) and The Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger (1696).
Charles Saumarez Smith, co-curator of the exhibition says: “I am so delighted that Sir John Soane’s Museum is celebrating the tercentenary of John Vanbrugh’s death with a comprehensive exhibition of his drawings, many of which were only acquired by the V&A in the 1990s and are being shown in public for the first time. They demonstrate the ways in which Vanbrugh sketched out ideas for his houses, including Castle Howard, and was fascinated by the design of small houses after he had acquired an estate on the hill between Greenwich and Blackheath where he constructed a small medieval castle for himself.”
To find out more visit: https://www.soane.org/exhibitions/vanbrugh-drama-architecture