Background
William Chambers was born on 23 February 1723 in Gothenburg, Sweden, to a Scottish merchant father.
( Brought up in Sweden by Scottish parents, trained in Fr...)
Brought up in Sweden by Scottish parents, trained in France, a regular visitor to China and India, Sir William Chambers (1726-1796) was by far the most internationally minded British architect of his time. Settling in London in 1755, Chambers became a favorite of King George III and went on to hold the highest official architectural offices and to build public and private commissions throughout the British Isles. Because of his eclectic neo-Palladian style, seminal Treatise on Civil Architecture (1759), and longterm influence through his numerous pupils, Chambers was regarded as one of the two greatest architects of late eighteenth-century Britain, sharing the honor with the more prolific Robert Adam. In this wide-ranging book, leading scholars of the period present current research on Chambers' Scandinavian and French connections; his Italian studies and projects; his relationship with British royalty; his commissioned buildings, interiors, and gardens; his furniture and metalwork designs; and his Treatise. Chambers designed and commanded works at Buckingham House, Kew, Richmond, and Windsor Castle, and was commissioned in 1774 to design the public offices at Somerset House in London. Charged with creating "an object of national splendour as well as convenience," Chambers met the challenge with a building equal to the best of those created by the French architects with whom he had trained. Selecting the highest quality materials, ornamentation, and painted decoration for Somerset House, Chambers' building showcased the best in British craftsmanship. This book was the catalogue for a William Chambers exhibition mounted in fall 1996 by the Courtauld Institute Galleries at Somerset House, their new home.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300069405/?tag=2022091-20
(The fundamental study of the life and works of the man wh...)
The fundamental study of the life and works of the man who, together with Robert Adam, dominated English architecture of the second half of the 18th century. A architectural theorist, designer of Somerset House and instrumental in founding the Royal Academy, Chambers was undoubtedly the greatest official architect of his period. Includes catalogue of works.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/027100133X/?tag=2022091-20
William Chambers was born on 23 February 1723 in Gothenburg, Sweden, to a Scottish merchant father.
In 1728 returned to England and settled at Ripon, where William, who was born in Stockholm, was educated.
He also studied under Clerisseau in Paris, with whom and with the sculptor Wilton he lived at Rome.
Between 1740 and 1749 he was employed by the Swedish East India Company making three voyages to China where he studied Chinese architecture and decoration.
He was employed to teach architectural drawing to the prince of Wales (George III. ), and gained further professional distinction in 1759 by the publication of his Treatise of Civil Architecture.
In 1772 he published his Dissertation on Oriental Gardening, which attempted to prove the inferiority of European to Chinese landscape gardening.
To the rage for every possible form of chinoiserie, for which he is chiefly responsible, Sir William Chambers owed much of his success in life.
In 1775 he was appointed architect of Somerset House, his greatest monument, at a salary of £2000 a year.
He also designed town mansions for Earl Gower at Whitehall and Lord Melbourne in Piccadilly, built Charlemont House, Dublin, and Duddingston House near Edinburgh.
He designed the market house at Worcester, was employed by the earl of Pembroke at Wilton, by the duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, and by the duke of Bedford in Bloomsbury.
The state coach of George III, his constant patron, was his work; it is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Although his practice was mainly Classic, he made Gothicadditions to Milton Abbey in Dorset.
The panels were painted by W. Hamilton, R. A. , with representations of the four seasons, night and morning, fire and water, Juno and Ceres, together with representations of the Golden Fleece and the Immaculate Conception.
Sir William Chambers numbered among his friends Dr Johnson, Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick and Dr Burney.
Chambers set up his own bookselling business in 1819 and went into printing, entering the lucrative business of writing and publishing cheap, popular, improving periodicals.
Then with his brother Robert, he made his reputation with Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, a 1½-penny weekly begun in 1832.
He accepted a baronetcy from Gladstone but died before it could be awarded.
( Brought up in Sweden by Scottish parents, trained in Fr...)
(The fundamental study of the life and works of the man wh...)
He began to exhibit with the Society of Artists in 1761 at Spring Gardens, and was one of the original members and treasurer of the Royal Academy when it was established in 1768.