Richardson (George, Scottish architectural and decorative draftsman, ca. 1738-1813) Design for a neoclassical ceiling, brush and ink, pen and ink, watercolour, some pencil under-drawing, on cream laid paper without watermark, with green wash border and background, 360 x 370 mm (14 1/4 x 14 1/2 in), minor spotting, light browning and surface dirt, framed, [circa 1770-1800]

Provenance:
Collection of John and Eileen Harris

Literature:
cf. Richardson, George, A Collection of Ceilings, Decorated in The Style Of The Antique Grotesque, 1766,

⁂ Finely detailed study, possibly an unused design for Richardson's A Collection of Ceilings, published in 1776. The Yale Collection for British Art hold another comparable original design [see acc. no. B1975.2.674].

Richardson began life as a draughtsman in the office of Robert and James Adam, and accompanied James Adam on his Grand Tour from 1760 to 1763; it was here that Richardson gained first hand knowledge of the antique sources that were to form the basis of the Adam style.