| Caption | James Wyatt: mezzotint after a portrait by his son Matthew Cotes Wyatt |
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| Name | James Wyatt |
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| Birth name | James Wyatt |
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| Nationality | English |
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| Birth date | August 03, 1746 |
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| Birth place | Blackbrook Farm, Weeford |
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| Death date | September 04, 1813 |
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| Death place | 2 miles east of Marlborough in carriage accident |
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| Resting place | Westminster Abbey |
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| Significant buildings | Fonthill Abbey |
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James Wyatt RA (August 3, 1746 – September 4, 1813), was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical style, who far outdid Adam in his work in the neo-Gothic style.
Early classical career
Wyatt spent six years in
Italy, 1762–1768, in company with
Richard Bagot of Staffordshire, who was Secretary to the Earl of Northampton's embassy to the Venetian Republic. In
Venice, Wyatt studied with
Antonio Visentini (1688–1782) as an architectural draughtsman and painter. In
Rome he made measured drawings of the dome of
St. Peter's Basilica, "being under the necessity of lying on his back on a ladder slung horizontally, without cradle or side-rail, over a frightful void of 300 feet".
Back in England, his selection as architect of the proposed Pantheon or "Winter Ranelagh" in Oxford Street, London brought him almost unparalleled instant success. His brother Samuel was one of the principal promoters of the scheme, and it was doubtless due to him that the designs of a young and almost unknown architect were accepted by the Committee. When the Pantheon was opened in 1772, their choice was at once endorsed by the fashionable public: Horace Walpole pronounced it to be "the most beautiful edifice in England".
Externally it was unremarkable (illustration, right), but the classicising domed hall surrounded by galleried aisles and apsidal ends, was something new in assembly rooms, and brought its architect immediate celebrity. The design was exhibited at the Royal Academy, private commissions followed, and at the age of 26 Wyatt found himself a fashionable domestic architect and an Associate of the Royal Academy. His polished manners secured him friends as well as patrons among the great, and when it was rumoured that he was about to leave the country to become architect to Catherine II of Russia, a group of English noblemen is said to have offered him a retaining fee of £1,200 to remain in their service. His major neoclassical country houses include Heaton Hall near Manchester (1772), Heveningham Hall in Suffolk (circa 1788-99), and Castle Coole in Ireland, as well as Packington Hall in Staffordshire, the home of the Levett family for generations, and Dodington Park in Gloucestershire for the Codrington family.
Later classical work
In later years, he carried out alterations at
Frogmore for
Queen Charlotte, and was made Surveyor-General of the Works. In about 1800, he was commissioned to carry out alterations to
Windsor Castle which would probably have been much more considerable had it not been for the King's illness, and in 1802 he designed for the King the "
strange castellated palace" at
Kew which was remarkable for the extensive employment of
cast iron in its construction.
Between 1805 and 1808 Wyatt remodelled West Dean House in West Dean, West Sussex. Wyatt’s work was remarkable because it is built entirely of flint, even to the door and window openings, which would normally be lined with stone.
In 1776, Wyatt succeeded Henry Keene as Surveyor to Westminster Abbey (in which year he was appointed Elizabeth, Countess of Home's architect on Home House, though he was sacked and replaced by Robert Adam a year later). In 1782 or 1783 he became, in addition, Surveyor of the Ordnance. The death of Sir William Chambers brought him the post of Surveyor General and Comptroller of the Works in 1796.
, England. Designed by James Wyatt in the 1790s.]]
Wyatt was now the principal architect of the day, the recipient of more commissions than he could well fulfil. His widespread practice and the duties of his official posts left him little time to give proper attention to the individual needs of his clients. As early as 1790, when he was invited to submit designs for rebuilding St Chad's Church at Shrewsbury, he broke his engagements with such frequency that the committee "became at length offended, and addressed themselves to Mr. George Stewart". In 1804, Jeffry Wyatt told Farington that his uncle had lost "many great commissions" by such neglect. When approached by a new client, he would at first take the keenest interest in the commission, but when the work was about to begin he would lose interest in it and "employ himself upon trifling professional matters which others could do". His conduct of official business was no better than his treatment of his private clients, and there can be no doubt that it was Wyatt's irresponsible habits which led to the reorganization of the Board of Works after his death, as a result of which the Surveyor's office was placed in the hands of a political chief assisted by three "attached architects".
. Designed by James Wyatt in the 1780s.]]
Wyatt was a brilliant but facile designer, whose work is not characterized by any markedly individual style. At the time he began practice the fashionable architects were the brothers Adam, whose style of interior decoration he proceeded to imitate with such success that they complained of plagiarism in the introduction to their Works in Architecture, which appeared in 1773. Many years later Wyatt himself told George III that "there had been no regular architecture since Sir William Chambers – that when he came from Italy he found the public taste corrupted by the Adams, and he was obliged to comply with it". Much of Wyatt's classical work is, in fact, in a chastened Adam manner with ornaments in Coade stone and "Etruscan" medallions executed in many cases by the painter Biagio Rebecca, who was also employed by his rivals. It was not until towards the end of his life that he and his brother Samuel (with whom must be associated their nephew Lewis) developed the severe and fastidious style of domestic architecture which is characteristic of the Wyatt manner at its best. (1) But among Wyatt's earlier works there are several (e.g., the Christ Church gateway and the mausoleum at Cobham) which show a familiarity with Chambers Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture, and so permit the belief that if his artistic integrity had been greater Wyatt might have continued the Chambers tradition instead of falling in with the "corrupt taste" of the brothers Adam. Had he been given the opportunity of designing some great public building, it is possible that he would have shown himself a true disciple of Chambers; (2) but his career as a government architect coincided with the Napoleonic wars, and his premature death deprived him of participation in the metropolitan improvements of the reign of George IV.
Gothic architecture
. Built 1795 - 1807 by James Wyatt for
William Beckford, the author of the
gothic fantasy novel Vathek.]]
Meanwhile, Wyatt's reputation as a rival to
Robert Adam had been eclipsed by his celebrity as a
Gothic architect. Every
Georgian architect was called upon from time to time to produce designs in the medieval style, and Wyatt was by no means the first in the field. However, whereas his predecessors had merely Gothicized their elevations by the addition of battlements and pointed windows, Wyatt went further and exploited to the full the picturesque qualities of medieval architecture by irregular grouping and the addition of towers and spires to his silhouettes. Never, indeed, have the romantic possibilities of Gothic architecture been more strikingly demonstrated than they were by Wyatt at
Fonthill Abbey and
Ashridge; and although crude in scale and often unscholarly in detail, these houses are among the landmarks of the
Gothic revival in England. In his lifetime Wyatt enjoyed the reputation of having "revived in this country the long forgotten beauties of Gothic architecture", but the real importance of his Gothic work lay in the manner in which it bridged the gap between the rococo Gothic of the mid 18h century and the serious medievalism of the early 19th century.
, Eglwys Newydd church]]
Of his cathedral restorations, inspired as they were by the mistaken idea that a medieval church ought to be homogeneous in style and unencumbered by screens, monuments, and other obtrusive relics of the past, it can only be said that the Chapters who employed him were no more enlightened than their architect, and that at Westminster Abbey at least he accomplished an urgent work of repair in an unexceptionable manner. His activities at Salisbury, Durham, Hereford, and Lichfield were bitterly criticized by
John Carter in his "Pursuits of Architectural Innovation", and it was due in large measure to Carter's persistent denunciation that, in 1796, Wyatt failed to secure election as a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries. In the following year, however, he was permitted to add F.S.A. to his name by a majority of one hundred and twenty-three votes.
Wyatt was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785, and took an active part in the politics of the Academy. In 1803 he was one of the members of the Council which attempted to assert its independence of the General Assembly of Academicians, and when the resultant dissensions led West to resign the Presidency in the following year, it was Wyatt who was elected to take his place. But his election was never formally approved by the King, and in the following year he appears to have acquiesced in West's resumption of office. Wyatt was one of the founders of the Architects' Club in 1791, and sometimes presided at its meetings at the Thatched House Tavern.
In 1802 Wyatt built a new house for the 7th Earl of Bridgewater on the Ashridge estate in Hertfordshire which is now a Grade 1 listed building. In 1803 Thomas Johnes hired Wyatt to design Saint Michel's Hafod Church, Eglwys Newydd, in Ceredigion, Wales.
Death
He died on September 4, 1813, as the result of an accident to the carriage in which he was travelling over the
Marlborough Downs with his friend and employer,
Christopher Codrington of
Dodington Park. He was buried in
Westminster Abbey; he left a widow and four sons, of whom the eldest,
Benjamin Dean, and the youngest,
Philip, were notable architects.
Matthew Cotes (1777–1862), the second son, became a well-known sculptor, whose best work is the bronze statue of George III in Cockspur Street off
Trafalgar Square. Charles, the third son, was for a time in the service of the
East India Company at Calcutta, but returned to England in 1801. Nothing is known of his later career.
List of architectural works
Public buildings
The Pantheon, Oxford St, London 1770-2
Christ Church, Oxford, north & east sides of the Canterbury Quad including the gate 1773-83
Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, 1776–94
Brasenose College, Oxford, redecorated the Library 1779-80
Holywell Music Room, Oxford, remodelled interior 1780
The Assembly Rooms, Chichester, Sussex, 1783
Worcester College, Oxford, interiors of the Chapel & Hall 1783, the Chapel was redecorated by William Burges
Oriel College, Oxford, the Library and alterations to the Provost's rooms 1788-91
Liverpool Town Hall, interiors 1783-1813
New College, Oxford, alterations to the Hall, Chapel & Library 1789-94
Merton College, Oxford, rebuilt Hall 1790-4, again rebuilt by Sir George Gilbert Scott 1872-4
Lincoln's Inn, London, repairs to the chapel roof 1791
Balliol College, Oxford, rebuilt Hall and redecorated the Library 1792
Magdalen College, Oxford, alterations to the Hall & Chapel 1792-5
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich 1796-1805
Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich 1796-7
Palace of Westminster, restoration of the House of Lords 1800-13, burnt 1834
The Town Hall, Ripon, Yorkshire 1801
The King's Bench Prison, London, restoration and alterations 1803-4, demolished
The Marshalsea Prison, London, restoration and alterations 1803-5, demolished
The Naval Arsenal, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk 1806, demolished 1829
The Armoury, Shrewsbury 1806
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Berkshire 1807-12 executed by John Sanders who modified the design, most notably using Greek Doric for the portico
Dorset House, Whitehall, London, adaptation as government offices 1808, demolished
The Market Cross, Devizes, Wiltshire 1814
Churches
, in the planned community of Milton Abbas, Dorset, 1774-86
St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, alterations 1787-1790
Salisbury Cathedral, restoration work 1787-93
St. Peter's Church, Manchester 1788-94, demolished
Lichfield Cathedral, restoration 1788-95
Hereford Cathedral, restoration 1788-97
Milton Abbey, Dorset, restored Abbey church 1789-91
East Grinstead Church, Sussex 1789-1813
Durham Cathedral, restoration 1795-6
St. Kea Church, Cornwall 1802 demolished 1895
Westminster Abbey, London, restoration work 1803
Hafod Church, Caernarvonshire 1803, burnt down 1931
Weeford Church, Staffordshire 1803
Henry VII Lady Chapel, Westminster Abbey, restoration 1807-13
Hanworth Church, Middlesex 1808-13, rebuilt 1865
London houses
11-15 Portman Square, London 1774
House, Grosvenor Square London 1778-9
9 Conduit Street, London 1779
Richmond House, London, addition of two rooms and staircase 1782, burnt down 1791
1 Foley Place, London, 1783, James Wyatt's own house, demolished 1925
Lichfield House, 15 St. James Square, London, alterations to the drawing room 1791-4
Montague House, 22 Portman Square, London, additions 1793, bombed in Blitz 1940
Queen's House (Buckingham Palace), London, alterations, rebuilt by John Nash 1825-1830
22 St. James Square, London 1803
Old Palace Kew, London, repairs 1802-11
New Palace Kew, London 1802-11 never completed owing to George III's insanity, demolished 1827-8
Devonshire House, London, the crystal staircase 1811-12, demolished 1924
Carlton House, London, refitted library 1812, demolished
New country houses
Gaddesden Place, Hertfordshire 1768-73
Heaton Hall, Lancashire, 1772
Sheffield Park, Sussex, 1776
Bryanston House, Dorset, 1778 rebuilt by Richard Norman Shaw 1890
Hothfield Place, Kent 1778-80, demolished 1954
Badger Hall, Shropshire 1779-83 demolished 1952
Roundway House, Wiltshire 1780
Fornham Hall, Suffolk, 1781-2 demolished 1951
Lee Priory, Kent, 1782–90, demolished 1954, a room survives in the V&A; Museum
New Park, Devizes, Wiltshire 1783
Sudbourne Hall, Suffolk 1784, later extended and remodelled
Sunningdale Park, Berkshire 1785, rebuilt
Wynnstay House, Denbighshire, 1785-8 rebuilt in the 19th century
Stanstead Park, Sussex, 1786-91 rebuilt in 1900
Sufton Court, Herefordshire 1788
Gresford House, Denbighshire c.1790
Hartham Park, Wiltshire 1790-5
Castle Coole, County Fermanagh 1790-8
Frogmore House, Berkshire 1792
Sundridge Park, Kent, 1792-5, finished by John Nash
Henham Hall, Suffolk 1793-7 demolished 1953
Purley Park, Berkshire 1795
Bowden House, Wiltshire, 1796
Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire 1796-1813
Trentham Hall, Staffordshire 1797, remodelled by Sir Charles Barry demolished c.1909
Stoke Poges Park, Buckinghamshire, 1797–1802
Wycombe Abbey, Buckinghamshire c.1798
Dodington Park, Gloucestershire 1798-1808
Norris Castle, Isle of Wight 1799
Pennsylvania Castle, Dorset 1800
Cranbourne Lodge, Windsor great Park 1800 demolished 1830
Nacton House, Suffolk 1801
Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire 1801-13, work continued under Rev. T. Thornton after Wyatt's death
Roehampton Grove, Surrey 1804, enlarged 1890
West Dean Park, Sussex, 1804 enlarged 1893
Ashridge, Hertfordshire 1808-13, completed by his nephew Sir Jeffry Wyatville after Wyatt's death
House at Streatham Surrey 1810
Elvaston Castle, Derbyshire 1812
Garden buildings & follies
Folly Temple Island 1771
Bridge, Chiswick House attributed (1774)
Cobham Hall, Kent, Darnley Mausoleum 1783
Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire, the Mausoleum 1787-94
Broadway Tower, an isolated folly for Lady Coventry, 1794
Peper Harrow, Surrey, a conservatory 1797 demolished c.1913
Croome Park, Worcestershire, various garden buildings including the Panorama Tower 1801
Alterations to existing country houses
Fawley Court, Oxfordshire, internal alterations 1771
Cobham Hall, Kent, alterations, additions, 1771–81, 1789-93 & 1801-12
Crichel House, Dorset, interior alterations 1773
Charlton Park, Wiltshire alterations 1774
Aubery Hill, Notting Hill, London, alterations 1774
Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire, alterations to library, and garden buildings (demolished) 1774
Copped Hall, Essex redecoration of Library, burnt out in 1917
Milton Abbey, Dorset, interior decoration 1775-6
Belton House, Lincolnshire, Library & Boudoir 1776-7
Burton Constable, Yorkshire, West Drawing Room & Entrance Lodges, 1776-8
Heveningham Hall, the interiors & orangery, plus the Rectory & Huntingfield Hall (a farm) 1776-84
Blagdon Hall, Northumberland, internal alterations 1778,Lodges to park 1787 & stables 1789-91
Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, alterations and interiors 1780
Sandleford Priory, Berkshire, alterations and additions 1780-6
Pishobury Park, Hertfordshire, reconstruction of an older house after a fire 1782-4
Plas Newydd, Anglesey, alterations & enlargements 1783-95 & 1811
Gunton Hall, Norfolk, enlargement 1785, partially demolished
Leinster House, Dublin, decoration of the gallery 1785
Cremore House, Chelsea, alterations 1785-8, demolished
Goodwood House, Sussex, enlargements, kennels & dower house, 1787–1806
Powderham Castle, addition of music room 1788
Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk, alterations 1791-1804
Auckland Castle, County Durham, Gothic screen and inner gateway c.1795
Corsham Court, Wiltshire, alterations 1796
Cricket St Thomas, Somerset, alterations 1796-1800
Windsor Castle, Berkshire, alterations and interiors 1796-1800
Canwell Hall, Staffordshire, added wings and interiors, 1798, demolished 1911
Swinton Park, Yorkshire, North Wing 1798
Cassiobury Park, Hertfordshire, alterations & additions 1799
Wilton House, Wiltshire, alterations 1801-11
Bulstrode Park, Buckinghamshire 1807, rebuilt by Benjamin Ferrey 1862
Swinton Park, Yorkshire, south wing 1813
Chicksands Priory, Bedfordshire, alterations 1813-14
Notes
The best portrait of Wyatt is that in the possession of Messrs. W. & A. Gilbey, Ltd. There is another in the
RIBA Library, and a pencil portrait by Dance is in the Library of the
Royal Academy. The
National Portrait Gallery has a
bronze bust of Wyatt by John Charles Felix Rossi. Curiously few original drawings by Wyatt are known to be in existence: but in the RIBA Library there are designs by him for
Badger Hall,
Fonthill Abbey,
Downing College, and
Ashridge Park. An album of Wyatt's sketches, in the possession of the
Vicomte de Noailles, contains designs for chandeliers, torchères, vases, etc., a plan for Lord Courtown, etc. (C. Life, Dec. 5, 1947, and July 2, 1948). Those for
Slane Castle are in the Murray Collection of the
National Library of Ireland.
Wyatt's principal draughtsman was Joseph Dixon, who, according to Farington, had been with him from the time of the building of the Pantheon.
He had many pupils, of whom the following is an incomplete list: William Atkinson; W. Blogg; H. Brown; Joseph Dixon (perhaps a son of the draughtsman); John Foster, junior of Liverpool; J. M. Gandy; C. Humfrey; H. Kitchen; W. Sanderson; R. Smith; Thomas and John Westmacott; M. Wynn; and his sons Benjamin and Philip Wyatt. Michael Gandy and P. J. Gandy-Deering were also in his office for a time.
[A.P.S.D.; D.N.B.; B.M., Egerton MS. 3515 (Wyatt family letters); A. Dale, James Wyatt, 1936; The Farington Diary, ed. J. Greig, passim; T. F. Hunt, Architettura campestre, 1827; Hist. MSS. Comm. XVth Report, Appendix VII, pp. 255, 281, 301; Fortescue, viii, 79, 87, 143, 178–9, 181, 204; Gent's Mag., 1813 ( ii), pp. 296–7; R. Turnor, James Wyatt, 1950, and review by John Summerson in New Statesman and nation, July 29, 1950.]
See also
Wyatts, an architectural dynasty
References
A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects, 1660-1840 by H. M. Colvin, Harvard 1954, pp. 722 and onwards
External links
James Wyatt's biography at Beckfordiana, the website for resources on the life and work of William Beckford of Fonthill.
Packington Hall, Home of Rev. Thomas Levett, Whittington, Staffordshire, ca 1900
Footnotes
# For an admirable analysis of the mature "Wyatt manner", see Arthur Oswald article on "
Rudding Hall, Yorks"., in C. Life, Feb. 4, 1949. The architect of Rudding itself is unknown.
# The influence of Somerset House is, in fact, apparent in Wyatt's rejected design for
Downing College, Cambridge, of c. 1800 (see Gavin Walkley, "A Recently Found James Wyatt Design", R.I.B.A. Jnl., Sept. 12, and Oct. 17, 1938).
Category:English architects
Category:Neoclassical architects
Category:Deaths by horse-riding accident
Category:1746 births
Category:1813 deaths
Category:Royal Academicians
Category:Road accident deaths in England
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