Design for mausoleum, Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire: perspective, c.1795

James Wyatt PRA (1746 - 1813)

RA Collection: Art

This is an architectural drawing by James Wyatt, architect of this mausoleum which was erected between 1788 to 1794 to commemorate Sophie Aufrere of the Pelham family of Brocklesby Park; her portrait sulpture by Joseph Nollekens stands within at the centre. The design is based on ancient Roman temples such as that of Vesta at Tivoli and, with its interior coffered dome, of the Pantheon, a building which Wyatt had imitated in a commercial manner on Oxford Street, London, and which had made his name as an architect early in his career.

The draughtsmanship of this drawing is highly skilled; it is a most delicately drawn work, a perspective of the exterior of this great tomb. The work concentrates on the architecture, enclosed within its railings with sacophagi-like piers.

It is such a fine drawing that this could well be the submission which Wyatt exhibited at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1795 (no. 715) as 'Description of a mausoleum at Brocklesby, Lincolnshire'. Moreover, this drawing was in John Yenn's collection. Yenn, a fellow Royal Academician with Wyatt (who served for a very short period as President), also worked under Wyatt beginning in 1796 when Wyatt was appointed Surveyor-General and Comptroller of the Office of Works in succession to Yenn's master, Sir William Chambers.

Wyatt made and submitted a mausoleum design drawing in 1786, for the Darnley family at Cobham, as his Royal Academy Diploma Work (05/3633).