Literature

This drawing of Ickworth House in Suffolk was created by Dennis Creffield in 1990, part of the National Trust’s Foundation For Art Drawings Commission, 1990 (the commission also resulted in Dennis’s drawing of St Michael’s Mount). The building, according to Wikipedia, was the creation of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry (known as the Earl-Bishop), who commissioned the Italian architect Antonio Asprucci to design him a classical villa in the Suffolk countryside. Originally it had been planned as an art gallery but the Earl's collection was seized by Napoleon. The Earl died in 1803, leaving the completion of house to his successor. In 1956, the house, park, and a large endowment were given to the National Trust in lieu of death duties. The site goes on to note that “As one of England's more unusual houses, Ickworth has been unflatteringly described as resembling "a huge bulk, newly arrived from another planet" and as "an overgrown folly". It is now being architecturally reassessed and recognised as the only building in England comparable with the monumental works of Boullée and Ledoux.” Stylistically, Dennis’s drawing is very similar to the English cathedral works for which he is more famous.