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DOI Artikel:Paszkiewicz, Mieczysław: Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois and his "Rotunda with Figures"
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18820#0072
One of the enigmatic features of the picture, the presence of the Cherokee Chiefs can be expla-
ined by the fact that their visit had a strong topical character. They arrived at Portsmouth to-
wards the end of Oetober 1790, after a long and difficult journey to offer to Great Britain their
help in the form of an army 30.000 strong. Their arrival was creating a sensation and their mo-
vements were often reported in The Times.-1 The last notice about them, published on 19th no-
vember 1790, included information that only two of the party were actually chiefs. We can imagi-
ne that those were the two exotically dressed figures morę or less in the centrę of the picture in
the National Museum in Warsaw.
Their presence in Sir Peters composition could be explained simply by the interest which their
visit created, but the possibility of some symbolic meaning can not be excluded.
The next problem which we are faced with is the identification of the interior used by the
painter as a background for his composition. Again a notice in The Times proves helpful and in
addition provides a useful piece of information: that by Oetober 1791 the picture had already
reached King Stanislaus in Warsaw.
„The King of Poland for whom Sir Francis Bourgeois painted that admirable picture of the
Bank was so struck with the magnificence of the structure that he has determined to have a si-
milar building erected in his capital. The subject on which Sir Francis Bourgeois is at present
engaged, has at least the charm of novelty. The scenę lies at Brighton and describes the landing
of Norman horses — the tide is out and some are conseąuently represented in the act of swimming
from the Packet — with one just gaining the shore, and another eompletely landed. The design
is as bold as beautiful."22
It is perhaps unnecessary to add that "the Bank" referred to was "the Bank of England".
And indeed a rotunda was in 1791 its most important and best known feature. Of course not Sir
John Soane's Botunda, built in 17 94—5,23 but its predecessor built in 176521 by Sir Bobert Tay-
lor, Surveyor to the Bank of England till his death in 1788.
Fortunately the detailed drawing of the Taylor structure by T.H. Malton (fig. 4) gives ample
materiał for comparison with the Bourgeois picture and leaves no doubt that the interior repre-
sented by thelater is indeed the Botunda in the Bank of England, although somehow a "sąueezed"
version of it.
H. Booksby Steele gives in his Architectural History of the Bank of England a detailed descrip-
tion of this interior: „The dominating feature of Taylor's new buildings was the Botunda...
which he placed almost in the centrę of the plan. Based on the Pantheon of Borne which he had
seen and admired during a visit to that city in his younger days, it was a circular hall nearly 62
feet in diameter with eight pairs of threequarter Corintian columns on pedestals spaced round
its perimeter. Between the pairs of columns were alternately semicircular and fiat recesses, the
rounded heads of which gave support to the entablature. From the latter sprang a great coffered
dome rising to a hight of 61 feet above the floor, with an eye 15 feet in diameter covered with
a lantern, as the sole source of light to the interior. To the north, south and east of the Botunda,
Taylor disposed four vaulted halls, all exactly alike in design and dimensions... Each was about
65 by 45 feet on plan."25
21. The Times, 30 oct. 1790, p. 3, col 3; 1 Nov.. p. 2, col. 3; 13 Nov., p. 2, col. 3; 18 Nov., p. 3, col. 3; 19 Nov., p. 3, col. 3
22. The Times, 17 Oct. 1791, p. 2, col. 3.
23. D. Stroud, The Architecture of Sir John Soane, London, 1961, p. 66, fig. 71—2. According to J. Summerson, Architecture
in Britain, 1530 — 1830, London, 1970, pp. 470 — 1, the Rotunda was built in 1796, with the active collaboration of Soane'9
old master, George Dance.
24. J. Giuseppi, The Bank of England, London, 1966, p. 105.
25. H.R. Stcelc, ,,An Architectural History of the Bank of England". Journal of the Royal Institule ofBritish Architects, XXXIII,
no 17, 17 July 1926, pp. 499 — 511 (also in the form of a separate reprint).
62
ined by the fact that their visit had a strong topical character. They arrived at Portsmouth to-
wards the end of Oetober 1790, after a long and difficult journey to offer to Great Britain their
help in the form of an army 30.000 strong. Their arrival was creating a sensation and their mo-
vements were often reported in The Times.-1 The last notice about them, published on 19th no-
vember 1790, included information that only two of the party were actually chiefs. We can imagi-
ne that those were the two exotically dressed figures morę or less in the centrę of the picture in
the National Museum in Warsaw.
Their presence in Sir Peters composition could be explained simply by the interest which their
visit created, but the possibility of some symbolic meaning can not be excluded.
The next problem which we are faced with is the identification of the interior used by the
painter as a background for his composition. Again a notice in The Times proves helpful and in
addition provides a useful piece of information: that by Oetober 1791 the picture had already
reached King Stanislaus in Warsaw.
„The King of Poland for whom Sir Francis Bourgeois painted that admirable picture of the
Bank was so struck with the magnificence of the structure that he has determined to have a si-
milar building erected in his capital. The subject on which Sir Francis Bourgeois is at present
engaged, has at least the charm of novelty. The scenę lies at Brighton and describes the landing
of Norman horses — the tide is out and some are conseąuently represented in the act of swimming
from the Packet — with one just gaining the shore, and another eompletely landed. The design
is as bold as beautiful."22
It is perhaps unnecessary to add that "the Bank" referred to was "the Bank of England".
And indeed a rotunda was in 1791 its most important and best known feature. Of course not Sir
John Soane's Botunda, built in 17 94—5,23 but its predecessor built in 176521 by Sir Bobert Tay-
lor, Surveyor to the Bank of England till his death in 1788.
Fortunately the detailed drawing of the Taylor structure by T.H. Malton (fig. 4) gives ample
materiał for comparison with the Bourgeois picture and leaves no doubt that the interior repre-
sented by thelater is indeed the Botunda in the Bank of England, although somehow a "sąueezed"
version of it.
H. Booksby Steele gives in his Architectural History of the Bank of England a detailed descrip-
tion of this interior: „The dominating feature of Taylor's new buildings was the Botunda...
which he placed almost in the centrę of the plan. Based on the Pantheon of Borne which he had
seen and admired during a visit to that city in his younger days, it was a circular hall nearly 62
feet in diameter with eight pairs of threequarter Corintian columns on pedestals spaced round
its perimeter. Between the pairs of columns were alternately semicircular and fiat recesses, the
rounded heads of which gave support to the entablature. From the latter sprang a great coffered
dome rising to a hight of 61 feet above the floor, with an eye 15 feet in diameter covered with
a lantern, as the sole source of light to the interior. To the north, south and east of the Botunda,
Taylor disposed four vaulted halls, all exactly alike in design and dimensions... Each was about
65 by 45 feet on plan."25
21. The Times, 30 oct. 1790, p. 3, col 3; 1 Nov.. p. 2, col. 3; 13 Nov., p. 2, col. 3; 18 Nov., p. 3, col. 3; 19 Nov., p. 3, col. 3
22. The Times, 17 Oct. 1791, p. 2, col. 3.
23. D. Stroud, The Architecture of Sir John Soane, London, 1961, p. 66, fig. 71—2. According to J. Summerson, Architecture
in Britain, 1530 — 1830, London, 1970, pp. 470 — 1, the Rotunda was built in 1796, with the active collaboration of Soane'9
old master, George Dance.
24. J. Giuseppi, The Bank of England, London, 1966, p. 105.
25. H.R. Stcelc, ,,An Architectural History of the Bank of England". Journal of the Royal Institule ofBritish Architects, XXXIII,
no 17, 17 July 1926, pp. 499 — 511 (also in the form of a separate reprint).
62