George Dance the Younger

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George Dance
Born 1 April 1741(1741-04-01)
London
Died 14 January 1825(1825-01-14)
London
Nationality British
Work
Buildings Newgate Prison
George Dance the Younger's Shakespeare Gallery building (1788), shown in 1851 after its purchase by the British Institution (from an engraving in London edited by Charles Knight)

George Dance the Younger (1 April 1741 – 14 January 1825) was an English architect and surveyor. The fifth and youngest son of George Dance the Elder, he came from a distinguished family of architects, artists and dramatists. He was described by Sir John Summerson as "among the few really outstanding architects of the century", but few of his buildings remain.[1]

Contents

[edit] Life

Dance was educated at the St. Paul's School, London. Aged 17, he was sent to Italy to prepare himself for an architectural career and joined his brother Nathaniel, who was then studying painting in Rome.[2] George was a member of academies in Italy, showing much promise as a draughtsman, and much of his later work was inspired by Piranesi, with whom he was acquainted.

He distinguished himself by designs for Blackfriars Bridge, sent to the 1761 exhibition of the Incorporated Society of Artists. His earliest London project was the rebuilding of All Hallows-on-the-Wall church in 1767.

He succeeded his father as City of London surveyor and architect on his father's death in 1768, when he was only 27. His first major public works were the rebuilding of Newgate Prison in 1770 and the front of the Guildhall, London. Other London works include the church of St Bartholomew-the-Less (1797). In Bath he largely designed the Theatre Royal, built by John Palmer in 1804-5. Sir John Soane was a pupil.

Many of his buildings have been demolished, including the Royal College of Surgeons, Newgate Prison, St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, the Shakespeare Gallery in Pall Mall, the library at Lansdowne House, the Common Council Chamber and Chamberlain's Court at the Guildhall, Ashburnham Place, and Stratton Park (demolished save for its Tuscan portico)

With his brother Nathaniel, he was a founder member of the Royal Academy in 1768, and its second professor of architecture, from 1798 to 1805. For a number of years, he was the last survivor of the 40 original Academicians.

[edit] A Collection of Portraits

Dance's years after 1798 were devoted to art rather than architecture. His Academy contributions consisted of highly finished pencil profile portraits of his friends in Regency London's artistic establishment. 72 etchings were engraved after them by William Daniell and A Collection of Portraits were published over ten years from 1804.[3] Many are now held by the National Portrait Gallery.

Dance resigned his office in 1815, and died after many years of illness in 1825. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral. Dance married Mary Gurnell (b. 1752) on 24 March 1772. Together they had three sons before her death in 1791.

[edit] List of works[4]

[edit] Works in London

[edit] Works outside London

[edit] Gallery of architectural works

  • West front, All Hallows-on-the-Wall, London

  • All Hallows-on-the-Wall, London

  • London Guildhall, c.1805

  • London Guildhall, Dance's facade on right

  • London Guildhall, Dance's facade

  • Main entrance, London Guildhall, Dance's facade

  • Cranbury House

  • Drawing room at Pitzhanger Manor, Ealing

  • St. Bartholomew the Less, St Bartholomews Hospital, West Smithfield, London

  • St. Bartholomew the Less, St Bartholomews Hospital, West Smithfield, London

  • Newgate Gaol, London, demolished

  • Newgate Gaol, London, demolished

  • Egyptian Hall, Mansion House, showing Dance's ceiling

  • Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, showing Dance's portico

  • Wesley's Chapel, London

  • Finsbury Circus, all of Dance's houses replaced by office buildings

[edit] See also

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[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Summerson, John (1946), Georgian London, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 129, http://books.google.com/books?id=U5w1AAAAMAAJ&q=%22among+the+few+really+outstanding+architects+of+the+century%22&dq=%22among+the+few+really+outstanding+architects+of+the+century%22&hl=en&ei=kx6PTu2nFMOKsQL5uqyjAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA 
  2. ^ page 16, Catalogue of the Drawings of George Dance the Younger (1741-1825) and of George Dance the Elder (1695-1768) from the Collection of Sir John Soane's Museum, Jill Lever, 2003, Azimuth Editions
  3. ^ Roger Bowdler, ‘Dance, George, the younger (1741–1825)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  4. ^ this list is based on pages 237-245, Dorothy Stroud, George Dance Architect, 1741-1825, 1971, Faber & Faber
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