|
Date: |
|
Description: | Colour lithograph . This view shows the newly constructed building for the British Museum in London, designed by neoclassical architect Robert Smirke (1780-1867). The building is seen from Great Russell Street, along which carts, carriages and pedestrians travel.
The British Museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 at Montagu House in Bloomsbury, the site of the current building. Architect Robert Smirke was commissioned to design an extension to the existing museum and a new quadrangular building. Smirke produced his designs between 1823 and 1846. The new museum buildings were constructed between 1846 and 1852 under the supervision of the architect’s brother, Sydney Smirke, who also designed the round reading room (1854-75). This print was issued in celebration of Smirke’s newly completed museum.
The print was published by the lithographic firm of Day & Son, which began as Day & Haghe and is best-known for publishing David Roberts's ‘The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia’ (1842-49), the most ambitious lithographic work ever published in England. A number of assistants were required to prepare more than 600 lithographic stones for the project. Partners William Day and Louis Haghe built up a team of skilled artists and lithographers which included, among several others, Edmund Walker and William Simpson. | Subjects: | railing carriage street horse cart museum horseback bollard portico basket column dog lamp post courtyard balcony Victorian genre man pavement | Temporal: | 1852 | Source: | Government Art Collection | Creator: | William Simpson (Lithographer) | Identifier: | http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/work.aspx?... | Go to resource |
|
|