As the science of photography developed, so architectural drawings became less realistic and more impressionistic (since there was no need to produce a realistic facsimile of a scene when a photograph could achieve this in an instant). Architectural draftsmen, however, were required to produce something that looked realistic when in fact it was pure fantasy.
Often the lovingly-drawn perspective flattered the building rather more than it deserved, putting it into a romantic light, or drawing it from an impossible viewpoint. Many architectural designs were never built, or worse, demolished – in such cases, the original drawings are the only evidence that the building ever existed.
We are proud to present a selection of architectural drawings and watercolours by some of the twentieth century’s greatest architectural artists, including Cyril Farey and JDM Harvey.
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Wolverhampton School of Practical Art
Wolverhampton School of Practical Art Published for London Illustrated News (25 June 1853) 17.5x29cm Watercolour If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Reginald Hallward Grapevine Altar Cloth Design
Reginald Hallward Grapevine Altar Cloth Design Watercolour and pencil Click here for biographical details and other works by the artist. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
John Charles Rogers RIBA (1888-1939)
The Lantern, St Paul's Cathedral, London
41 x 18 cm (61 x 7") Graphite on paper Signed JC Rogers Inscribed 'Isometric section on the centre line'. Rogers was a practising architect who trained at Regent Street Polytechnic and was then assistant to Messrs Harvey & Potter. -
D L Hadden
Design for Lounge Furniture in Sycamore (1929)
Pencil and watercolour 29x49cm For biographical details and other works by the artist click here. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
D L Hadden
Bedroom Interior
Pencil and watercolour 23x31.5cm For biographical details and other works by the artist click here. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
D L Hadden
Curio Cabinet Design (1929)
Pencil and watercolour 29.5x21.5cm For biographical details and other works by the artist click here. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Sir Albert Edward Richardson K.C.V.O., F.R.I.B.A, F.S.A., P.R.A. (1880-1964)Â
Cambridge Revisited (1933)
Pen, ink, and wash24 x 35 cmSigned and dated lower right.Renowned for his architectural fantasies, Richardson here depicts Sir Christopher Wren revisiting the chapel he built in 1677. Wren is a Colossus, surveying not only the architecture of the chapel but the fantastical assortment of characters present in the quad. Seventeenth century lords, ladies, and scholars occupy the centre of the picture while 20th century tourists (on the left) watch the scene unfold.Richardson was a leading English architect, teacher and writer about architecture during the first half of the 20th century. He was Professor of Architecture at University College London, a President of the Royal Academy, editor of Architects' Journal, founder of the Georgian Group and the Guild of Surveyors and Master of the Art Workers' Guild. He also received the Architectural Association’s Professor Bannister Fletcher Medal (an award for the study of post- Great Fire London architecture) in 1902. -
J R Stammers (1918-??) for Sir Albert Richardson
Design for New Buildings at Christ’s College, Cambridge
Inscribed ‘PROPOSED EXTENSIONS TO CHRIST’S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE’, ‘A.E. RICHARDSON E.A.S. HOUFE’ (lower left), ‘PERSPECTIVE BY J.R. STAMMERS’ (lower right) Pencil and watercolour heightened with bodycolour 63 x 86cm (25 x 34 inches) Provenance: The estate of Albert Richardson. Click here for other works by the artist and biographical details. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
William Alfred Pite (1860-1949)
King`s College Hospital, Denmark Hill general bird`s-eye view (1913)
Initialled H.M.F., signed and titled by William A. Pite F.R.I.B.A. (1860-1949), lower right, on board support with R.I.B.A. `Exhibition of Contemporary British Architecture` label, and architect`s label both mounted on verso Watercolour over pencil 46 x 92cm (26.25 x 18 inches) -
Reginald Hallward (1858-1948)
Design for wall painting at Werneth Church, Oldham
Watercolour with highlights 22 x 16 cm Click here for biographical details and other works by the artist. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Cyril A. Farey
Design for an Art Deco office building, (1932)
Signed ‘Cyril A Farey Del 1932’ Pencil and watercolour 23 x 16 in A glorious and large drawing of an as-yet unidentified art deco building. This picture is classic Farey, with the reflections in the foreground and the bright blue sky. Biographical details and other works by Cyril Farey can be found here. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Cyril A. Farey (1888-1954)
National Bank of India, Aden
Watercolour 44x60cm (frame) 17.5×33.5cm (6.8×13.1 inches) Biographical details and other works by Cyril Farey can be found here. In 1839 Aden was taken by the East India Company as a recoaling point between India and the UK. Aden came under the control of the Government of Bombay. In 1937, recognising the geographical distinction between India and Aden it ceased to be a part of British India and became a Crown Colony with its own Governor. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Cyril Farey (1888-1954)
Berners Street
Signed ‘Cyril A Farey’ and inscribed ‘Proposed New Premises Nos 3 & 4 Berners Street London W.’ Pencil and watercolour 39.5 x 23.5 cm Biographical details and other works by Cyril Farey can be found here. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
John Dean Monroe Harvey (1895-1978)Â
A design for Barclays Bank, Walthamstow (1964)
Signed and dated ‘J D M Harvey 64.’ Gouache on paper. A very fine architectural perspective by Harvey with his customary distinctive clouds and elegant people. The scheme was built, but the ground floor has since been rebuilt in a rather less satisfactory fashion. 41 x 60 cm (16 x 23 inches) For biographical details and more works by JDM Harvey, please click here. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
A Design for The Midland Hotel Manchester
Pencil drawing 20x41cm Provenance: British Railways If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Derek Wicrow
The Telecinema - Telekinema - National Film Theatre Southbank (1957)
Pencil drawing, squared for transfer. 40x51cm If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. The Telecinema was built for the 1951 Festival of Britain, situated between Waterloo Station and the Royal Festival Hall. Whilst press releases referred to the Telecinema, the outside of the building proclaimed Telekinema. Wells Coates were the architect, creating - in the words of Today's Cinema - "A fly-away linear design [with a ] gay façade and bold modern stare". Seating 410 people it was the first cinema in Britain with both 3D sound - provided by an array of speakers behind the screen and allowing the sound to come from the direction of the person speaking - and 3D vision. It was demolished in 1957 when the National Film Theatre moved to its current location - renamed in 2007 as BFI Southbank. -
John Chessel Buckler (1793-1894)
The Nave of Westminster Abbey
Watercolour Signed, Titled and dated 1810 25x17 cm Click here for other works by Buckler and biographical detail. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Hubert H. Clark
Design for a Country House (1947)
Watercolour and pencil 33x53cm If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Hubert H. Clark
Design for Slough HospitalÂ
Original print 33x53cm If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Florence & Walter Camm
Design for Series of Four Arthurian Stained Glass Windows for Mercersburg Academy Chapel, PennsylvaniaÂ
1928 Watercolour over photographic background 10 x 24cm Provenance: The archives of TW Camm The Irvine Chapel of Mercersburg Academy was built as a war memorial for the First World War dead of the school. The dead were honoured in a series of stained glass windows that were commissioned from a series of the greatest stained glass designers of the time. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Sir Edward Brantwood Maufe KBE, R.A, F.R.I.B.A. (1882-1974)
Lloyds Bank, Notting Hill Gate (c.1930)
Ink and wash 60 x 37 cm In original white-painted frame. Signed 'Edward Maufe, Architect' lower right; also signed 'Drawn by H A Townsend'. This bank, designed by Maufe, still stands; contrary to the flourishes of the architectural design, however, it was executed in a slightly more restrained style. Sadly, a gratuitously unattractive modern front now defaces the front of the original bank building. Maufe is probably most famous for his Guildford Cathedral, the Air Forces Memorial, and his work for the Imperial War Graves Commission, for which he received his knighthood in 1954. He served a five-year apprenticeship under William Pite and then attended St John’s College, Oxford as an undergraduate. He then studied Design at the Architectural Association. His architecture is notable for its strong arts and crafts influence; this likely arose from his having lived in The Red House, Bexleyheath, which Philip Webb designed for the most famous of the Arts and Crafts designers: William Morris. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Colen Campbell (1676-1729)
Althrop Hall in Northamptonshire the Seat of the Rt Honourable The Earl of Sunderland & co.
35x50cm Engraving (1715-1725) from 'Vitruvius Britannicus, or the British Architect...' Althorp Hall - as it is now written, but still pronounced 'Althrop' - is the seat of the Earl Spencer and the location of the grave of Diana, Princess of Wales. Colen Campbell was a Scottish architect and architectural writer, renowned for being a founder of the Georgian style. His major published work was 'Vitruvius Britannicus' which was a catalogue of design, containing a series of engravings of English buildings by Inigo Jones, Sir Christopher Wren, Campbell himself and other prominent architects of the era. It was published in three volumes between 1715 and 1725. -
David Loggan (1634-1692)
Frontispiece Public Schools Oxford
Engraving 33x42cm If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Frederick Nash (1782-1856) Drawn and etched
Engraved by F C LewisSouth West View of St George's Chapel, Windsor
To the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Exeter London Published by F Nash, No 6 Asylum Buildings, Westminster Road July 12 1804 39.5x52cm Frederick Nash was born in Lambeth. Initially studying architectural drawing under Thomas Malton he subsequently enrolled at the Royal Academy of Arts. From 1801 to 1809 he worked with the antiquarians John Britton and Edward Wedlake Brayley, subsequently becoming a member of the Society of Painters in Watercolours - a group of painters who had left the Royal Academy following complaints of under-recognition of their works. Latterly primarily a landscape painter he toured the rivers of Germany. -
George Horace Davis (1888-1963) Design for publication probably in The Illustrated London News
Tractors and mechanisation Signed and dated 1947 Gouache, monochrome 17.25x29.75" Here the reduction in manpower as a result of the mechanisation of agriculture is celebrated in a typical work by Davis. A "special artist" for 'The Illustrated London News', he worked for it for forty years, the scope and detail of his work being without peer in the rest of the staff. Tractors are pictured in every possible role in agriculture; however the great advances made in the sixty years since then could not have been forseen. Born in Kensington, London, Davis was educated at Kensington Park College and then at Ealing School of Art, working subsequently as a freelance artist until the First World War intervened. He served with the Royal Flying Corps (subsequently the Royal Air Force) with distinction, and had a number of his paintings of aerial combat published in 'The Sphere.' In 1923 he commenced work with The Illustrated London News, for which he worked for the next forty years. His first drawing related to the use, in small boats, of wireless and was the first of many similar diagrammatic drawings designed to educate and inform readers of advances in science, warfare, technology or transport. Needless to say his attention to detail meant architectural drawings were another strength of his, drawings of 10 Downing Street and Westminster Abbey, for instance - and also architectural phantasies such as a proposed heliport at Charing Cross Station. During his career at The Illustrated London News he is estimated to have produced illustrations covering some 2,500 pages of the publication; each one requiring an informed understanding arising from careful research. He continued to work for it until his eighties and at the time of his death there was a supply of finished but as-yet-unpublished works. The sale at Christies in London of the archive of The Illustrated London News on 7 October 2014 included many works by Davis - a price of £16,875 being obtained for a series of seven drawings by him. -
Claude Muncaster (1903-1974)
View of the Clyde from Lyle Hill
Monochrome watercolour with ink Signed and dated 1952, and inscribed 'Sphere' 18x50cm DRAWN FOR 'THE SPHERE' ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE Click here for biographical details and other works by the artist. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Louis Osman (1914-1996)
Thomas Lumley Architectural Design ii
45x55cm Pen and ink with wash and heightening in white Provenance: from the artist's estate Click for biographical details and other works by Osman. Lumley Castle was built in 1389 and today is a four star hotel that belongs to the Earl of Scarborough. Thomas Lumley was an eighteenth century soldier and statesman, and the third Earl of Scarborough. -
Louis Osman (1914-1996)
Lincoln Cathedral Architectural Design
45x55cm Pen and ink with wash and heightening in white Signed 'Louis Osman BA (Hons) FRIBA' and inscribed 'Lincoln Cathedral' lower right Dated Nov. 1960 Provenance: from the artist's estate Click for biographical details and other works by Osman. Osman worked on Lincoln Cathedral, amongst other cathedrals. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Louis Osman (1914-1996)
Kens Barn at Goudhurst - Architectural drawing
77x53cm Coloured chalks Signed 'Louis Osman' and inscribed Provenance: from the artist's estate Click for biographical details and other works by Osman. A design for a barn conversion in Goudhurst in Kent. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Louis Osman (1914-1996)
A £350 Modernist House Weekend Cottage - Architectural drawing
75x52cm Watercolour and pencil Inscribed Provenance: from the artist's estate Click for biographical details and other works by Osman. From Osman's time as an architectural student at the Bartlett School of Architecture. The examiner has graded the piece to the face. Osman was even more an artist than an architect, which shows with the quality of the shading and calligraphy. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Louis Osman (1914-1996)
Architectural Perspective Design for a Shop Front
75x52cm Watercolour and pencil Signed and Inscribed Provenance: from the artist's estate Click for biographical details and other works by Osman. From Osman's time as an architectural student at the Bartlett School of Architecture. A proposed house stands in woodland. Osman was even more an artist than an architect and it shows with the quality of his drawings. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056.