Entrance into Poets Corner

Location

Country: Holy See
City: Vatican City
Place: British Embassy

Poets' Corner is the name traditionally given to a section of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey because of the high number of poets, playwrights, and writers buried and commemorated there.

The first poet interred in Poets' Corner was Geoffrey Chaucer. Among the monuments depicted in Pugin’s print are those of 16th and 17th century poets Edmund Spenser, John Dryden and John Milton. Over the centuries, a tradition has grown up of interring or memorialising people there in recognition of their contribution to British culture. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the honour is awarded to writers.

This illustration is taken from 'The History of the Abbey Church of St Peter’s Westminster, its Antiquities and Monuments', a two-volume work published by Rudolph Ackermann. German-born Ackermann arrived in England at the age of 23, where he established himself as a leading publisher. A year after the completion of his renowned work 'The Microcosm of London' (an illustration from which, Chelsea Hospital, is on display in this room) Ackermann embarked on Westminster Abbey and its monuments. The lavishly illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive 'History of the Abbey Church' was first published in 16 monthly parts from 1811 to 1812; each unbound part enclosed in a paper wrapper. The text accompanying the illustrations was by the writer and literary imitator William Combe, who worked closely with the staff of artists.

Augustus Charles Pugin fled to England in the 1790s, either because of his Royalism or on account of a duel. He seems to have landed in Wales, where he became a friend of the architect John Nash (1752–1835). He worked as a general artist, providing designs for Nash and painting scenery, before moving to London and studying at the Royal Academy Schools. He first exhibited architectural designs at the Academy in 1799 and, from 1807, began to exhibit at the Old Watercolour Society. Pugin worked on several projects for Rudolf Ackermann, including plates for The Microcosm of London and The Abbey Church of Westminster (1811–12). During this period he set up a school of architectural drawing and began to publish his own works. He was the father of A. W. N. Pugin, who designed the interiors of the Houses of Parliament.
John Bluck was an aquatint engraver, mainly of topographical views, but also of marine and sporting subjects after his contemporaries. He produced plates for numerous publications.

Places

England, London

Subjects

sculpture (as Subject), topography, gravestone, monument, abbey, church, church windows, tracery, religious/ecclesiastical interior

Materials & Techniques

aquatint, coloured aquatint

Artist

Auguste Charles Pugin (1762 - 1832)
John Bluck

Title

Entrance into Poets Corner

Date

published 1 November 1811

Medium

Coloured aquatint

Dimensions

height: 34.00 cm, width: 28.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Baynton-Williams, January 1978

GAC number

13595