John Soane is an English architect who became famous for his first major project, the renovation of the Bank of England building. Soane began work in 1788, and a few years later became the Royal Academician of Arts and Professor of Architecture. He rebuilt buildings in London and beyond, took commissions from the nobility, and also proposed the design of a brewery. At the same time, John Soane was a connoisseur of art, he turned the house he bought in 1792 into a museum.
The collection was so large that the architect decided to experiment and enlarge the building. He filled the premises with sculptures, paintings, drawings, equipped the library. The collection of unique items was worthy of the best museums in the world. In 1833, Soane issued a document according to which the house and the entire collection were bequeathed to the British nation. His son was very unhappy with this decision, as he lost a significant part of his inheritance. One of the conditions was to preserve the collection unchanged, and today visitors can see the museum as the architect intended it.
Looking at these photos, you already feel how saturated the rooms are with exhibits. You need to get used to it a little, to catch your eye on one object, to move from rarity to rarity. Sculptures of different sizes stand along the walls, mounted on shelves, the walls are strewn with architectural elements, to see some of the exhibits, you have to raise your head and peer at the ceiling.
The collection contains works by Canaletto, Giovanni Piranesi, William Turner, William Hamilton and many other artists. Among the sculptures there is a miniature copy of Diana of Ephesus, plaster casts of Aphrodite of Knidos, Apollo Belvedere. As for the library, there are over 7 thousand volumes in it: these are Roman classics, books on sculpture, painting, music, and philosophical works, encyclopedias, and much more. Most of the publications are about architecture. There was a place for illuminated manuscripts, for example, one of the most interesting copies is the English Vulgate (Latin translation of the Bible) of the 13th century. The number of architectural drawings is also impressive, there are more than 30 thousand of them, among them there are works by Soane himself and his students.
