George Dance the Younger

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

George Dance
Born(1741-04-01)1 April 1741
Barts Hospital;
Commercial Road;
Finsbury Circus & HAC HQ;
Old Billingsgate Market
; etc.
George Dance the younger's Shakespeare Gallery building (1788), shown in 1851 after its purchase by the British Institution (from a wood-engraving in London edited by Charles Knight)

George Dance the Younger

portraitist.[1]

The fifth and youngest son of the architect George Dance the Elder, he came from a 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.[2]

Life

Background and education

The architect George Dance the elder married Elizabeth Gould in 1719.

St Paul's School.[5]

Dance spent the six years between 1759 and 1765 studying architecture and draughtsmanship in Rome. Aged 17, he set off on his

chimneypieces for Sir Robert Mainwaring.[9]

In early 1762 Dance was measuring and drawing the Temple of Vesta, Tivoli[10] and later that year he entered a competition organised by the Accademia di Parma to design A Public Gallery for Statues, Pictures & c..[11] His drawings were dispatched to Parma in April 1763, and a few weeks later it was announced that he had won the gold medal, and his designs were exhibited at the Ducal Palace.[12] The projected building was in the latest style of neoclassical architecture. During June 1764 the Dance brothers were in Naples,[13] but later that year they were back in Rome, entertaining the actor David Garrick and his wife.[14] On 21 December 1764 George Dance and his brother were elected to the Accademia di S. Luca, where he was described as Giorgo Danze, architetto Inglese.[15] On 16 February 1765 Dance dined with the painter Angelica Kauffman and James Boswell who was visiting Rome.[16] A few weeks later the brothers left Rome to return to London.[17]

Career

On his return from the Grand Tour, George (the younger) joined his

consecrated on 8 September 1767.[19]

In 1768, when he was only 27, George succeeded as Architect and Surveyor to the

St Bartholomew the Less (1793), a former chapel within the precincts of Barts Hospital.[20]

At Bath, Somerset he largely designed the Theatre Royal, built by John Palmer in 1804–5.

Coleorton Hall was one of his few buildings in the Gothic style.[21]

Many of Dance's buildings have been demolished, including the Royal College of Surgeons (apart from the portico), 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 Doric portico). Dance retired from practice in 1815.[22]

Dance's long career spanned several of the conventional phases of the Neo-Classical movement, from mid-18th century French Classicism to the full blown Greek Revival of the early 19th century. As such, he also played an important role in the careers of several major architects within this continuum, such as

Greek Revival architects. Significantly, some of Dance's later work embraced the increasingly austere Greek Revival style, such as the unfluted Doric portico on Stratton Park of 1803, derived from the temples at Paestum, and the unfluted Ionic portico on the Royal College of Surgeons
(built 1806 onwards, so representing one of the first Greek Revival porticos in London).

The Royal Academy

With his brother Nathaniel, George Dance was a founder member of the

Royal Academy, founded on 10 December 1768.[23] In 1795, with William Tyler, Dance was appointed to examine the accounts of the Royal Academy following the resignation of Sir William Chambers, and in 1796 they became the Academy's first auditors, helping put the institution on a sounder financial footing.[24]

In 1798 Dance succeeded

Royal Academicians
.

A Collection of portraits

91 Gower Street, London where Dance lived and died

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

National Portrait Gallery
.

Personal life

Dance married Mary Gurnell (born 7 February 1752 in

Charles Webb (1785–1844).[30] Mary Dance died at the age of 38 in 1791.[31]

Dance suffered from ill health for the last three or four years of his life.[32] He died on 14 January 1825,[33] at No. 91 Gower Street, which is now marked with a blue plaque.[34] He was buried in the crypt at St Paul's Cathedral.[35][36]

List of works

Works in London

Works outside London

Gallery of architectural works

  • West front of All Hallows Church, London
    West front of All Hallows Church, London
  • All Hallows-on-the-Wall, London
    All Hallows-on-the-Wall, London
  • London Guildhall, c. 1805
    London Guildhall, c. 1805
  • City of London Guildhall, Dance's façade on right
    City of London Guildhall, Dance's façade on right
  • City of London Guildhall, Dance's façade
    City of London Guildhall, Dance's façade
  • Cranbury House, Hampshire
    Cranbury House, Hampshire
  • Drawing room at Pitzhanger, Ealing
    Drawing room at Pitzhanger, Ealing
  • St Bartholomew the Less Church in Barts Hospital, London
    St Bartholomew the Less Church in Barts Hospital, London
  • St Bartholomew the Less, West Smithfield, London
    St Bartholomew the Less, West Smithfield, London
  • Newgate Gaol, London, demolished
    Newgate Gaol, London, demolished
  • Newgate Gaol, London, demolished
    Newgate Gaol, London, demolished
  • Dance's Egyptian Hall ceiling in the Mansion House, London
    Dance's Egyptian Hall ceiling in the Mansion House, London
  • Portico of Royal College of Surgeons at Lincoln's Inn Fields, London
    Portico of Royal College of Surgeons at Lincoln's Inn Fields, London
  • Wesley's Chapel, London
    Wesley's Chapel, London
  • Finsbury Circus layout, all Dance's houses now being replaced by offices
    Finsbury Circus layout, all Dance's houses now being replaced by offices
  • St Lawrence Jewry Church, near Guildhall[39]
    St Lawrence Jewry Church, near Guildhall[39]

See also

  • Ammonite Order

References

  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dance (family) s.v. George Dance, the younger" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 794.
  • ISBN 0-300-07207-4
  • "A catalogue of the drawings of George Dance the Younger is a highlight of recent books on architecture and design", Apollo, April 2004
  • "George Dance, the Younger, as Town Planner (1768–1814), Michael Hugo-Brunt, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 14, No. 4, Town Planning Issue (Dec. 1955), pp. 13–22
  • "Dance, George, the younger (1741–1825)", Roger Bowdler, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 21 Sept 2007

Notes

  1. ^ 3 artworks by or after George Dance the Younger, Art UK
  2. ISBN 9780598854841
  3. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  4. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  5. ^
    ISBN 1-898592-25-X
  6. ^
    ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  7. ^
    ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  8. ^
    ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  9. ^
    ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  10. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  11. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  12. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  13. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  14. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  15. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  16. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  17. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  18. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  19. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  20. ^ www.stbartstheless.org.uk
  21. ^ Eastlake, Charles Locke (1872). A History of the Gothic Revival. London: Longmans, Green & Co. p. 72.
  22. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  23. ISBN 978-1-905711-83-3
  24. ^ Hodgson, J. E.; Eaton, Frederick A. (1905). The Royal Academy and its Members 1768–1830. London: John Murray., p.104
  25. ISBN 0-521-44091-2
  26. ISBN 0-521-44091-2
  27. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    , Oxford University Press, 2004
  28. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  29. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  30. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  31. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  32. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  33. ISBN 0-571-09007-9
  34. ^ "George Dance the Younger – Blue Plaque". openplaques.org. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  35. Sinclair, W.
    p. 470: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.
  36. ISBN 0-7195-3328-7
  37. ^ www.facultyoffice.org.uk
  38. ^ "History". Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  39. ^ www.e-architect.co.uk
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Dance_the_Younger&oldid=1193462990"