Watercolour study and pencil sketch
C.R. Cockerell and assistants, 1837-8, 1840
Pencil and watercolour, chapel in pen, on separate sheets mounted together. 63.5×132
Verso: pencil perspective sketch of north range from north east, also showing Wright screen.
MS Add.9272/4/69 recto and verso

The recto and verso of this watercolour study represent a poignant embodiment of Cockerell’s vision. In the study, the unexecuted principal facade of the 1837 design is shown, together with the north wing, and the paper has been pasted onto a larger sheet to show how the ensemble would look alongside the chapel of King’s College. The pencil sketch on the verso of that sheet shows, beside the screen and Old Schools, the north wing of the
project alone, as it was constructed, and as it still remains. In the visual contrast of small sketch and spectacular watercolour we can see the relative significance given to the limited constructions of reality as compared to the
architecture of imagination.