Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/217

 alabaster sarcophagus brought from Egypt by Belzoni; he acquired Hogarth's two series of pictures, ‘The Rake's Progress’ in 1802, and ‘The Election’ (from Garrick's collection) in 1823, Reynolds's ‘Snake in the Grass,’ and a number of good works by the leading painters and sculptors of the day. These, together with many casts and models of the remains of antiquity, gems, rare books, and illuminated manuscripts, and the whole of his own architectural designs, he arranged in his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which he transformed into a museum, employing many ingenious devices for economising space. In 1827 John Britton [q. v.] published ‘The Union of Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting: a series of illustrations with descriptive account of the house and galleries of John Soane.’ In 1830 Soane himself printed a description of the museum of which a third edition (1835), with additional illustrations by Mrs. Hofland, contains a portrait of Soane, mezzotinted by C. Turner from a bust by Chantrey.

Soane was a munificent supporter of charitable institutions connected with art and literature. His house and its valuable contents in Lincoln's Inn Fields Soane in 1833 presented to the nation, obtaining an act of parliament by which it was vested in trustees, and endowing it with the funds necessary for its maintenance. He died at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields on 20 Jan. 1837, leaving the bulk of his property to the children of his eldest son, and was buried in the mausoleum which he had erected for his wife in old St. Pancras churchyard.

The Soane Museum contains portraits of its founder at various ages by Hunneman, N. Dance, G. Dance, Sir T. Lawrence, J. Jackson, and W. Owen; and another by Jackson is in the National Portrait Gallery. The Lawrence portrait was engraved in mezzotint by C. Turner, and in stipple for Fisher's ‘National Portrait Gallery’ by J. Thomson; and a portrait by S. Drummond was engraved by T. Blood for the ‘European Magazine,’ 1813. In 1836 Daniel Maclise painted a portrait of Soane, and presented it to the Literary Fund, and its subsequent destruction by William Jerdan [q. v.], at Soane's instigation, caused some sensation at the time. In the same year an etching by Maclise appeared in ‘Fraser's Magazine.’

Despite his philanthropic instincts, Soane was a man of intractable temper, and not happy in his domestic relations. In 1784 he married Elizabeth Smith (d. 1815), niece of George Wyatt, a wealthy builder, to whose fortune he thereby succeeded. By her he had two sons, John and George (see below); the former died in 1823 at the age of thirty-six; with the latter he established a lifelong feud, and he is said to have declined a baronetcy in order that his son might not inherit anything from him.

The younger son, (1790–1860), miscellaneous writer, born in London in 1790, graduated B.A. from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1811. He possessed a good knowledge of French, German, and Italian, and, besides many original works, chiefly novels and plays, was the author of many translations from these languages. He died on 12 July 1860. The following are his chief works: 1. ‘Knight Damon and a Robber Chief,’ London, 1812, 12mo. 2. ‘The Eve of St. Marco: a Novel,’ London, 1813, 12mo. 3. ‘The Peasant of Lucerne,’ London, 1815, 8vo. 4. ‘The Bohemian: a Tragedy,’ London, 1817, 8vo. 5. ‘The Falls of Clyde: a Melodrama,’ London, 1817, 8vo. 6. ‘Self-Sacrifice: a Melodrama,’ London, 1819, 8vo. 7. ‘The Dwarf of Naples: a Tragi-comedy,’ London, 1819, 8vo. 8. ‘The Hebrew: a Drama,’ London, 1820, 8vo. 9. ‘Pride shall have a Fall: a Comedy,’ London, 1824, 8vo. 10. ‘Specimens of German Romance,’ London, 1826, 16mo. 11. ‘Aladdin: a Fairy Opera,’ London, 1826, 8vo. 12. ‘The Frolics of Puck,’ London, 1834, 12mo. 13. ‘Life of the Duke of Wellington,’ London, 1839–40, 12mo. 14. ‘The Last Ball and other Tales,’ Woking, 1843, 8vo. 15. ‘The Night Dancers: an Opera,’ London, 1846, 8vo. 16. ‘January Eve: a Tale,’ London, 1847, 16mo. 17. ‘New Curiosities of Literature,’ London, 1847, 12mo. 18. ‘The Island of Calypso: an Operatic Masque,’ London, 1850, 12mo (Biogr. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816, p. 323; Pantheon of the Age, vol. iv.; Gent. Mag. 1860, ii. 218).

[Dict. of Architecture; Architectural Mag. 1837; Builder, 1862; Donaldson's Review of the Professional Life of Sir J. Soane, 1837; Knight's Cyclopædia of Biography, 1857; Gent. Mag. 1837, i. 321; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Bates's Maclise Gallery, 1883; O'Driscoll's Memoir of Maclise; Roberts's Memorials of Christie's, 1897.]

 SOEST, GERARD (d. 1681), portrait-painter, is usually stated to have been born in Westphalia. It is more probable that he was, like Sir Peter Lely, a native of Soest, near Utrecht, as his portraits have some affinity to those of the Utrecht school. He appears to have been born early in the century, but nothing is known of him until 1656, when he came to London, already in some repute as a painter, and quickly obtained employment. His portraits are carefully and forcibly painted, the character of the sitter being well preserved, but his some-