Elevation of the west front and dome, preparatory for Gribelin’s engraving of 1702

WRE/6/2/7

c.1701–02

Sir Christopher (1632–1723) Wren, Simon (1661–1733) Gribelin

Pen and grey ink over pencil under drawing and incised lines, with additions in brown ink and pencil. Four sheets of smooth laid paper in an inverted ‘T’ shape with a fold at the main horizontal join (lower section: two sheets joined vertically at centre; upper section: one main sheet and a narrower top sheet for the lantern), with several other folds, all backed with modern canvas tape, and the whole backed with modern tissue. 88.7 x 85.0 cm overall. Watermarks not visible.

A preparatory study for Gribelin’s 1702 engraving of the entire west elevation, including the transepts; it incorporates the revised west towers in WRE/6/2/6 (stage 4), and a dome and lantern similar to the right-hand version on WRE/5/3/9. Drawn by Simon Gribelin. Datable 1701-02. Scale 10 ft to 1 inch. An inscription in French in mid-brown ink on the reverse, along the top edge, partly cut off by trimming, points to Gribelin’s authorship of the drawing: ‘recommande d’ombre [?] a gauche. pour que les impressions vienne a droit’ (‘recommend shadow on the left, so that the impressions fall on the right’). Similar handwriting and brown ink are found in notes and corrections on the front of the sheet, including the ink note ‘10 inchs’ for the width of the console bracket of the upper entablature, beneath a pencil study at upper left. Pencil notes mark the pilasters and columns as ‘pill:’ and ‘coll:’) and give the modular spacing of columns and bays: ‘3 m ½’, ‘¾’, ‘2 m ¾’ in the centre of the upper portico; ‘2 m ½’ for the central lower intercolumniation; ‘2 m’ for the right-hand one; and ‘3 m ¼’ for the right-hand lower niche. Other notes include ‘comp’ (for Composite) next to a pilaster of the peristyle (all of which are incorrectly drawn Corinthian), and ‘win’ and ‘is a fon[?] / or niche’ in the two middle upper openings of the peristyle (probably referring to these as open or filled; see WRE/5/3/9). All the main vertical and horizontal divisions of the elevation are written along the lower right half and right vertical sides of the sheet in the same grey ink as the drawing. The handwriting and marking-up convention are neither Hawksmoor’s nor Dickinson’s. The pen and pencil techniques and the handling of decorative details link the drawing to 19 others in the same hand dating from c.1685-c.1705 (see entries for Gribelin, Simon (1661-1733)). Distinctive features include the leaves and abacus flowers of the Composite capitals, the festoons on string-like suspensions, the fluently drawn winged-cherub keyblocks over the aisle windows, and the use of preparatory pencil studies against vertical construction lines; compare WRE/3/1/13. The west towers in the elevation are revisions of those in WRE/6/2/6. The dial faces have been narrowed and set higher, the winged cherubs removed, and the attic and capping have been refined. In May 1702 Gribelin was paid for ‘2 Copper Plates to Engrave the Designes of the West End of the Church upon’ (Wren Society 15, p.84). This drawing probably dates around that time. The engraving itself incorporates additional statuary and is dated 1702 (Wren Society 14, pl.12).

Access to the Wren office drawings held at London Metropolitan Archives is available only with advance notice and at the discretion of the Heritage Services Director, London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, London, EC1R 0HB.

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WRE/5/3/9, WRE/3/1/13, WRE/6/1/9, WRE/3/1/12, WRE/3/2/9, WRE/3/4/3, WRE/3/4/11, WRE/5/1/2, WRE/5/1/3