George Dance the Younger
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George Dance the Younger (1741 - 14 January 1825) was an English architect and surveyor. The fifth and youngest son of George Dance the Elder, he came from a distinguished family of architects, artists and dramatists.
Aged 17, he was sent to Italy to prepare himself for an architectural career and joined his brother Nathaniel, who was studying painting in Rome.
He succeeded his father as city surveyor and architect for London in 1768 when he was only 27. He had already distinguished himself by designs for Blackfriars Bridge sent to the 1761 exhibition of the Incorporated Society of Artists.
His earliest London project was the rebuilding of All Hallows-on-the-Wall church in 1767. His first major public works were the rebuilding of Newgate Prison in 1770 and the front of the Guildhall, London. His other London works include the church of St Bartholomew-the-Less (1797).
With his brother Nathaniel, he was a founder member of the Royal Academy in 1768, professor of architecture from 1798 to 1805, and for a number of years the last survivor of the 40 original Academicians.
His last years were devoted to art rather than to architecture, and after 1798 his Academy contributions consisted solely of chalk portraits of his friends, 72 of which were engraved and published (1808-1814). He resigned his office in 1815, and after many years of illness died on the 14 January 1825, and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
