Stowe House, Buckinghamshire: Design for Ceiling and Wall Decoration

William Kent, between 1728 and 1732

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Artist: William Kent (British)
Medium: Graphite, pen and black and brown ink, brown and gray wash on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Size: Sheet: 15 1/8 x 12 1/2 inches (38.4 x 31.8 cm)
Museum: Yale Center for British Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

From the 1730s until his death in 1749, Sir Richard Temple, first Viscount Cobham (1675–1749) commissioned numerous designs for interior alterations to Stowe House as well as garden temples and other embellishments to the landscape from William Kent. This design proposes an ornately decorated ceiling for a hall at Stowe. As a reference to the patron's distinguished military career, the central oval features an idealized representation of Lord Cobham accepting a sword from Mars, and the theme is continued in the coving with martial trophies flanking an all’antica portrait of the patron.

It is not known if the design in this drawing was ever executed as rooms within the house have since been altered. It appears as though the drawing is the work of both Kent and his assistant, Henry Flitcroft, having been laid out in black pen by Flitcroft and altered by Kent. The precise details of the ceiling ornament as well as the rough alterations in brown pen are in Kent’s own hand. The modifications, suggesting adding sculptural reliefs to the room, were probably added when the architect presented his design to the client.

Text: Yale Center for British Art.