The Hall and Stair Case, British Museum
Not on view
The British Museum was founded in 1753 and occupied, as its first home, the late seventeenth-century former private residence Montagu House. Here Rowlandson depicts the main staircase and entrance hall, with a painted ceiling by Charles de La Fosse (1636–1716) depicting "Phaeton Demanding the Chariot of the Sun." The French artist was employed to work at the property from 1690–92. The rapidly growing collection meant that Montagu House had to be gradually demolished early in the nineteenth century to make way for the present building designed by Robert Smirke (1780–1867). This print comes from a series devoted to prominent London landmarks and provides a record of one of the city's lost spaces.
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