Architect Of An Age

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29803, 21 April 1962, Page 3

Architect Of An Age

Robert Adam and His Circle. By John Fleming. Murray. 379 pp. Index.

The Adam family was a remarkable one from several points of view, and individual members of it illustrate many sides of the Scottish national character. Architecture became a traditional pursuit with the Adams; but they were amateurs of the arts in general,—virtuosi, to use the fine old seventeenth century term—and. on occasion, hardheaded men of business, as well.

It is true that Robert is the central figure in Mr Fleming’s admirable volume; nevertheless, his father, William Adam, fully deserves the attention he is given in the opening chapters. William’s great achievement, shared by his sons, was the, final planning and conduction of Hopatoun House in? East Lothian. P

More remarkable still was Duff House, a great mansion in the wilds of Banffshire. “Combining the dour solidity and solemnity of an ancient fortress with the fantasy of a baroque stage design, the vast pile rises out of the bleak northern landscape like some hirsute centurion: a local levy, of course, for its wild rugged grandeur is unmistakably Scottish.” After the rebellion of 1745, Adam and his sons were employed on the construction of Fort George, Inverness — an extraordinary neo-Gothic castle, the Vanbrughian fortifications of which still dominate the Moray Firth. William’s two sons followed in their father’s footsteps. although Robert's ability, amounting to genius, far surpassed that of his younger brother James. At first the two young men helped their father: but Robert’s greater originality was revealed to the discerning by the extravagant and whimsical Gothic designs he worked out “with such a precocious appreciation of the sophisticated charriis of rococo." In 1754 the two brothers set off from Edinburgh for London and Italy. Robert was haunted by the idea of the grandeur of Rome. In a letter written to his sister Peggy a few weeks after he arrived there, he told her how his hopes had been realised. "In short,” he remarked. “I am antique mad or what they would call in Scotland an Antick. But antique here, antique there, I hope to be able to invent great things if I should never be able to execute one —and there's my ambition.” Mr Fleming describes Robert Adam's intensely social life in Italy, and particularly in Rome, with a wealth of detail. It is an interesting account of what foreign residence could do for a cultivated young man of modest fortune and good family at a time when Italy was more picturesquely I beautiful than it can ever i be again. The young archi- ' tect. however, devoted most i of his time to his studies, ■profiting greatly from the brilliant talent of a French ! colleague, Charles-Louis iClerisseau. who was en- ■ do wed “with the utmost knowledge of architecture, of ’perspective, and of designing ■ and colouring. I ever saw or had any conception of.” When he returned to England early in 1758, Robert Adam was quite obviously a finished artist in his own particular line. Like so many of his countrymen at this time, he set up in London. One of his early commissions was a series of designs for Kedleston House, the seat of Sir ■Nathaniel Curzon, later I Lord Scarsdale. Curzon was enchanted with the results: but not all those who paid Kedleston a visit were so favourably impressed. The mansion moved Dr Johnson to utter some characteristic remarks. "It would do excellently for a town-hall,” Boswell reports him as saying.

•‘The large room with the pillars” (said he) ‘‘would do for the Judges to sit in at the assizes; the circular room for a jury chamber; and the rooms above for prisoners.” Dr. Taylor suggested he should at least appear pleased with the house. “But” (said Dr. Johnson) “that was when Lord Scarsdale was present. Politeness obliges us to appear pleased with a man's works when he is present. No man will be so ill bred as to question you. You may therefore pay compliments without saying what is not true. I should say to Lord Scarsdale of his large room, ‘My Lord, this is the most costly room that I ever saw;’ which is true.” Other early work by Robert Adam included extensions to General Bland’s house at Isleworth, and the designs for the library of the Royal College of Physicians at Edinburgh. By 1758, when Mr Fleming concludes this part of the biography. Robert Adam was on the brink of a great career. ‘‘The victories of 1759 and the vast expansion of the empire were quickly followed by the accession of a young and gifted monarch, of whom much was expected as a patron of the arts.” ‘‘Our eloquence and the story of our arms have been carried to the highest pitch.” wrote Horace Walpole in 1762. “If there are any talents among us, this seems the crisis for their appearance: the Throne itself is now the altar of the graces, and whoever sacrifices to them becomingly, is sure that his offering will be smiled upon.” Mr Fleming remarks that “Robert was ready with his bulging portfolios to answer the architectural aspirations of the age.”