Holland Park Living
Robert Adam (1728—92)
Robert Adam is generally regarded as the greatest British architect of the second half of the 18th century. He is equally highly regarded as an interior designer and a furniture designer.
He came from an architectural family. His father, William Adam (1689 - 1748), was a leading Scottish architect. His brothers John (1721 - 92) and James (1732 - 94) also became architects. They all trained in their father’s Edinburgh office.
From 1754–8 Adam embarked on the usual Grand Tour of European sites and then studied Imperial Roman architecture under Clérisseau in Rome and elsewhere.
In 1758 he began working in London, where he was joined by his brother, James, who had followed him, not only in undertaking a similar Grand Tour, but also doing it with Clérisseau. Most of Robert Adam’s earliest work was in refurbishing the interiors of existing buildings. He was responsible for the interiors of Harewood House, Kedleston Hall, Syon House, Osterley Park, Luton Hoo, Newby Hall, and Kenwood. He was the first architect to attempt comprehensive schemes of interior decoration, right down to the design of the keyhole guards.
He and James published Works in Architecture. The first volume was published in 1773, the third and last in 1822.
Adam introduced the Neo-Classical style to English architecture. The dominant Palladian style, as promoted by the leading architects of the previous generation, such as Lord Burlington, emphasised a close copying of ancient Roman styles and forms. Adam’s Neo-Classical style still relied on the Roman models for inspiration, but interpreted them rather than mimicked them, to produce a lighter and more elegant style. It also gave considerable scope to escape the strait jacket of obedience to antiquity and add individual ideas and decorations. He was not doctrinaire about classical models; he also designed castles in a style which might be called neo-Gothic. Adam’s expertise was in the details and what the time demanded was a new repertory of decorative motifs, which he provided. He was prolific as a designer and his influence spread rapidly all over England and as far as Russia and America.
20 St James’s Square and 20 Portman Square were two influential houses he designed in London in the 1770s. The decoration was a deliberately simplified and stripped-down version of the customary Palladian decorative effects, but he also added elaborate decorations of his own invention.
In 1772 he and James were ruined by an unsuccessful housing development called the Adelphi on the banks of the Thames, but their brother John in Edinburgh and a lottery of the houses saved them from bankruptcy.
Robert Adam resurrected his career with the help of commissions mainly in Edinburgh. He designed the General Register House, the University, and Charlotte Square. The entrance front to the University is his most monumental building and is regarded as his masterpiece as an architect. He also built his neo-Gothic castles (sham towers and battlements on the outside, comfortably classic rooms on the inside) which included Culzean Castle and Seton Castle.
Robert Adam died in 1792 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
