John Soane's Cabinet of Curiosities
Reflections on an Architect and His Collection
Author: Bruce Boucher
A detailed study that sheds a fascinating new light on Sir John Soane (1753-1837) and his extraordinary collection.
Hardcover
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
A detailed study that sheds a fascinating new light on Sir John Soane (1753-1837) and his extraordinary collection.
Description
An in-depth study that sheds a fascinating new light on Sir John Soane (1753–1837) and his world-renowned collection
A Financial Times Best Book of 2024: Art, Design, and Fashion
Sir John Soane's architecture has enjoyed a revival of interest over the last seventy years, yet Soane as a collector—the strategy behind and motivation for Soane's bequest to the nation—has remained largely unexplored. While Soane referred to the display of objects in his house and museum as "studies for my own mind," he never explained what he meant by this, and the ambiguity surrounding his motivation remains perennially fascinating.
This book illuminates a side of Soane's personality unfamiliar to most students of his life and work by examining key strands in his collection and what they reveal about Soane and the psychology of collecting. Topics include the display of antiquities; his fascination with ruins, both literal and figurative; his singular response to Gothic architecture; and his investment in modern British painting and sculpture. These aspects are bookended by an introductory biographical chapter that highlights the ways in which his family and career informed his collecting habits as well as an epilogue that analyses the challenges of turning a private house and collection into a public museum.
Critic Reviews
A Financial Times Best Book of 2024: Art, Design, and Fashion
“Elegantly and engagingly written for the general reader and richly illustrated with full-colour photographs.”—Laura Freeman, Times (UK)
Chosen by James Hall for Times Literary Supplement’s “Contributors’ Books of the Year,” 2024
“Boucher . . . is both readable and scholarly on the contents of this densest and most theatrical of interiors.”—Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times
“Richly illustrated with new photography and material uncovered from museum archives. . . . A treasure house of anecdotes and analysis that does full justice to the spectacle of Soane’s breathtaking Wunderkammer.”—Tim Newark, The Spectator
“The collections that Boucher discusses in this book stand witness to Soane’s hard-won erudition, refined eye, impeccable taste and place at the heart of cultural London.”—Gillian Darley, Literary Review
“This handsomely produced book opens the complexity of Soane’s collecting and installation for an interested non-specialist better than anything that has gone before.”—Alan Powers, CountryLife
“As always with publications produced by Yale, the design and layout, along with the quality of the illustrations, are outstanding.”—Holly Marjorie, Public Statues and Sculptures Association
“This brilliant book . . . offers an unprecedented insight into the personality of Soane the collector.”—RW, House & Garden
“Thought-provoking and richly illustrated.”—Christopher Baker, Burlington Magazine
“[This book] illuminates the critical role of house museums today.”—Clare Coulson, Financial Times
“The account we have been waiting for. . . . Fascinating, rich, and superbly illustrated.”—English Buildings
About the Author
Bruce Boucher is an art historian and curator who served as director of Sir John Soane’s Museum from 2016 to 2023. Specializing in Italian Renaissance, Baroque, and Neo-classical art and architecture, he is the author of a number of books, including The Sculpture of Jacopo Sansovino, Andrea Palladio: the Architect in his Time and Earth and Fire: Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova.
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