Whitton House, Middlesex: Two Alternate Elevations of the Court Front and Corresponding Ground Floor Plans
Date:
between 1732 and 1739
Materials & Techniques:
Graphite, pen and black ink and gray wash on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 17 5/8 x 24 1/8 inches (44.8 x 61.3 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.1143
Gallery Label:
This drawing is part of a set of designs for Whitton Place, Middlesex, a villa begun in 1731 by Roger Morris (see drawings B1977.14.1138–44). In 1722, Archibald Campbell, first Earl of Ilay, later third Duke of Argyll, acquired forty acres of Crown land at Whitton, a hamlet about eight miles west of London. An experienced gardener, Ilay cultivated the land with exotic trees and plants. He and his brother John, second Duke of Argyll, were active builders from 1714 and often turned to James Gibbs for their commissions, including the greenhouse and folly at Whitton. Rather than the Tory Gibbs, however, Ilay commissioned the Whig architect Roger Morris. The small house was built on a forty-five-foot square plan with small single-bay projections on each of the four walls. Contemporary reports describe the first floor as decorated in chinoiserie and the ground floor as a museum of curiosities. William Chambers lived at Whitton Place later in the century. The building was demolished in the mid-nineteenth century. The drawing shows two variant entrance front elevations and corresponding floor plans of the house and office wings. The offices on the left-hand side of the sheet are a square plan; the alternative design incorporates covered passages on curving plans. The designs for the basement are more similar, showing a house with a spinal corridor on the east-west axis and an entrance at the north front that is flanked by the steward’s room and servants’ hall. Cellars and larders line the south wall. In elevation, the wings appear as loggias terminating in decorative pavilions. The house’s north front is shown with variant rooflines. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2014
