David Wilson, 'A Rare Portrait of the Famous Architect and Town Planner of Bath, John Wood the Elder (1704–54)'
David Wilson, ‘A rare portrait of the famous architect and town planner of Bath, John Wood the elder (1704–54)’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. XXIII, 2015, pp. 47–64 TEXT © THE AUTHORS 2015 A RARE PORTRAIT OF THE ARCHITECT AND TOWN PLANNER OF BATH, JOHN WOOD THE ELDER ( – ) DAVID WILSON ohn Wood the elder, one of the greatest architects The mid eighteenth-century carved wooden Jworking in Georgian Britain, was responsible for bust, measuring in. in height, and depicted in some of its finest architecture from that period. Fig. , is one of only two recorded portraits of the His name is synonymous with major parts of Bath, builder of Georgian Bath. Apart from one (oil on such as Queen Square (Fig. ) and the magnificent canvas) ‘conversation piece’ in which apparently Circus (formerly The King’s Circus) (Fig. ), the Wood appears alongside a number of his latter comprising houses arranged in three equal contemporaries, but in a depiction that is segments of ten about a circle with a diameter of undistinguished and probably somewhat flattering, feet. no other portrait has come to light that can with any Fig. Queen Square, Bath (north front). ( Photo: the author ) THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII A RARE PORTRAIT OF THE ARCHITECT AND TOWN PLANNER OF BATH , JOHN WOOD Fig. The Circus, Bath. ( Photo: the author ) reasonable degree of assurance be identified as bust was painted in its original stone colour. One area Wood. This bust therefore is of great significance in of the join can be seen in Fig. , at a point where the the iconography of this celebrated architect and socle meets the bust adjacent to the underside of the town planner.
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