A Perspective on Perspectives Architectural periodicals flourished in England during the latter two­ thirds of the 19th century. In fact, the idea of a periodical specifically devoted to architecture was born during this period. These publications became increasingly rich and complex as the decades passed. The illustrations that graced their pages became an art form in their own right, particularly the dramatic and highly artistic perspective drawings which emerged as the most popular form of architectural illustration at the time. This article will examine and illustrate the tradition of visual presentation in British Victorian architectural periodicals, and the 1 The type of perspective drawing that appeared in continuance of that tradition in Canada with the Canadian Architect Victorian architectural periodicals seems to have had and Builder. its technical and stylistic roots in the Renaissance, as an alternative to the orthogonal architectural drawing. Wolfgang Lotz explains that the perspective drawing "was always concerned with picture-like visualization and not with the working drawing." Wolfgang Lotz, Studies in Italian Renaissance Archi­ high point achieved in late-Victorian English architectural perspective draw­ tecture (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1977), 32. The ap­ 71e plication of perspective to architectural rendering l lng was preceded by a lengthy evolution in the art of architectural presentation, resulted in the development of a much more compre­ including the concept of the Picturesque, the heritage of topographical drawing and hensible method of representing three-dimensional painting, and numerous 18th- and 19th-century treatises on perspective. 1 The shift to buildings on paper. Gavin Stamp, The Great Perspec­ tivists (London: Trefoil Books, 1982). The applica­ using perspective drawings as a method of representing architecture appears to have tion of the idea of the Picturesque to architecture was occurred in the 1770s. One possible catalyst for the change was the founding of the important to the development of architectural per­ Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. Architects who were invited to display their work spective drawings in England. Picturesque aesthetics alongside painters and sculptors in the Royal Academy's annual exhibitions2 soon were inherited in part from Edmund Burke's 1756 essay, Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the realized that their conventional orthogonal drawings could not compete for audience Sublime and the Beautiful. Particularly important was attention with the visually exciting, seductive paintings of the landscape artists. 3 But the Picturesque recognition of a specific relationship perspective drawings, as architects quickly realized, could be striking in effect. For between pictorial composition and architecture, and between a building and its surroundings. See example, the perspective illustration of William Butterfield's All Saints Church, Christopher Hussey, The Picturesque (London: Margaret Street, London, as it appeared in The Builder, revealed the entire building in Frank Cass, 1983). a dramatic and imposing sweep impossible to take in at a single glance when standing 2 Although alternate public exhibitions and competi­ directly in front (figure 1). Similarly, a perspective of a "Church on the Banks of Lake tions for architecture existed, the Royal Academy Huron" prepared by English architect T.C. Sorby included an evocative landscape setting show remained the most prestigious through the 19th century. See Helene Lipstadt, "Architectural for the building (figure 2 and cover). Although not particularly accurate, the landscape is Publications, Competitions, and Exhibitions," in a visually appealing image, evidently inspired by what Sorby imagined the wilds of Architecture and its Image (Montreal: Canadian Canada to look like (though the background more closely resembles the Apennines, Centre for Architecture, 1989): 109-37. with cypresses and umbrella pines for added Italian effect). Published in The Builder 3 The connection to the founding of the Royal Academy in December 1859, the image may represent the Church of St. John-in-the-Wilderness is suggested by Gavin Stamp, who also points out that this more comprehensible and engaging method of communicating with a broader audience was likely further encouraged by the Academy's first professor of architecture in 1770, the noted perspective artist Thomas Sandby. Gavin Stamp, by Jillian Harrold The Great Perspectivists, 11 . 21 :4 SSAC BULLETIN SEAC 95 near Sarnia, Ontario.4 As Sorby did not emigrate to Canada until1883, he likely sub­ mitted this drawing without having seen the significantly less-craggy actual surroundings of the building he designed. Two illustrations of another Canadian building reveal contrasting illustrative approaches chosen by two different British periodicals. Christ Church Cathedral. Montreal, designed by Frank Wills and Thomas Seaton Scott, was still under construc­ tion at the time it appeared in The Builder in January 1858 and in The Illustrated London News two years later. In The Builder, the cathedral soars above an artistic land­ scape, remote from its actual urban setting in Montreal (figure 3) . Behind the church rises a mountain significantly more imposing and rugged than Mount Royal. The sky picturesquely conveys movement through imaginative, swirling cloud effects. The image of the cathedral in The Illustrated London News, however, eliminates much of the pictur­ esque landscape and depicts a building that is more prosaic and less sublime in appearance (figure 4). The growing use of perspective drawings for presentation purposes in the Victorian era, and the accompanying dramatic increase in publicity, led to the develop­ ment of a new profession, the architectural perspectivist. One of the most brilliant perspectivists of the early 19th century was Joseph Michael Gandy (1771-1843). Some­ 4 The Church of St. John-in-the-Wilderness at times called the "Turner of architecture," or the "English Piranesi," Gandy is often Bright's Grove, Sarnia Township, was described in connected to architect Sir John Soane, for whom he produced many perspectives.5 the correspondence of Benjamin Cronyn, Bishop of Axel Hermann Haig (1835-1921) was another prominent 19th-century perspectivist. the Diocese of Huron at the time. The 1861 census of Sarnia Township, however, makes no mention He worked predominantly for architect William Burges (1827-80); quite a few of his 6 of a stone church such as this one, and no photo­ perspectives appeared in the pages of The Architect. Burges credited Haig's authorship of graphic proof of its existence has been found; it is the perspectives, which at the time was relatively unusual. By the 1870s, however, possible that it was destroyed or replaced by another building. Collingwood and Owen Sound have also most perspectivists' names were published along with their work. been suggested as possible locations of this build­ Perspective drawings became increasingly more elaborate throughout the ing by Robert G. Hill, editor of The Biogrophical 19th century. John Drayton Wyatt, known as "Scott's Wyatt" due to the amount of Dictionary ofArchitects in Canada 1800-1950 [in work he did for architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, was renowned for his interior per­ progress].! am indebted to the archivist of the V.P. Cronyn Memorial Archives at the Diocese of Huron, spectives of churches, which were characteristically drawn from an artificially low who found a similar structure in Goderich (St. viewpoint so as to increase the sensation of height. This technique, which recorded George's). every detail of the interior from floor to vaulting, inspired other perspectivists, as can 5 Pierre du Prey described Gandy as having "excelled be seen in the illustrations of G.K. and E. Radford's St. Paul's Church, Yorkville, first and foremost in having a landscapist's eye for Toronto, and C. Hodgson Fowler's St. George's Church, Lennoxville, Quebec, published changing atmospheric conditions. He delighted in 7 evoking on paper those moments of an English in The Builder (1858) and The Architect (1869) respectively (figures 5, 6). summer's evening just before or after a rainstorm, Perspective drawings initially prepared for competitions were frequently pub­ when long slanting sunbeams gild structures set lished in periodicals. This allowed the public to see the premiated designs, and against a backdrop of ominous clouds." Pierre du encouraged the dissemination of up-to-date architectural ideas. An example of this Prey, Sir fohn Soane [London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985), 15. Gandy also produced original can be found in the competition held for the Ottawa Parliament Buildings in 1859. works of architectural fantasy for the Royal Academy The winning architects, Fuller and Jones, had the opportunity to profit from images of exhibitions between 1789 and 1838. His fantasies Deane and Woodward's Oxford Natural History Museum published in The Builder in were eloquent and poetic, exceeding the bounds of probability in lavish watercolour perspectives, much 1855 and 1859. The latter illustration (figure 7) emphasized the separate laboratory like the Bibienas or Piranesi before him. See John section of the museum, which is very sinillar in character to the Fuller and Jones design Summerson, Heavenly Mansions and Other Essays for the library of the Parliament Buildings. Fuller and Jones quite likely saw the 1855 on Architecture [New York: Charles Scribner's illustrations, and could have seen the 1859 image