Design for a town mansion: elevation, 1773

John Yenn RA (1750 - 1821)

RA Collection: Art

Yenn exhibited this drawing at the Royal Academy in 1773, the same year as he made it, under the title 'Principal front of a town mansion'. He was 23 years old and had been in Sir William Chambers's office for nine years. The design is not for a specific building but for a type, and typical of pieces created by budding architects of the period to show their design and draughting skills.

The building, shown in elevation, is two-stories in height with a set-back central cupola. It is evenly balanced, with nine bays divided into threes, the centre recessed and the outer pedimented. The ground storey is rusticated, with arched windows, and a similar central door (which is recessed within a portico of Doric columns). The upper storey, with its line of Cornithian columns, is embellished in the outer pavilions with oval windows over the flat-topped windows.