 Loved the built-in book cases, creating nooks by the windows. (That's Sir John in the portrait.) |
  The
Museum"Soane designed this house to live in, but also as a setting for his antiquities and his works of art. After the death of his wife (1815), he lived here alone, constantly adding to and rearranging his collections. ... [T]he building was established as a museum at his request after his death." I was reminded of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, which was also built to house its owner's ecclectic art collection. Hers is more an art museum, though, while Soane collected mostly archaeological artifacts. |