Whitehall and the Admiralty Screen

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

A carefully measured architectural drawing of the same view of Whitehall, also by Augustus Charles Pugin, is in the Ministry of Defence Art Collection (reference: MOD5490) and demonstrates Pugin’s architectural training. This watercolour was probably made after the drawing.

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.

Places

England, London, Admiralty, Whitehall

Subjects

topography, townscape/cityscape, woman, military uniform, soldier, railing, street, government building

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), watercolour (as artists materials), watercolour (as object name)

Artist

Auguste Charles Pugin (1762 - 1832)

Title

Whitehall and the Admiralty Screen

Date

c.1810

Medium

Watercolour on paper

Dimensions

height: 22.00 cm, width: 43.00 cm

Acquisition

Transferred from the Ministry of Defence, 1995

Inscription

signed bl

GAC number

5491