17 Facts About James Wyatt

James Wyatt was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles.

James Wyatt was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.

In Venice, James Wyatt studied with Antonio Visentini as an architectural draughtsman and painter.

Between 1805 and 1808 James Wyatt remodelled West Dean House in West Dean, West Sussex.

James Wyatt's work was remarkable because it is built entirely of flint, even to the door and window openings, which would normally be lined with stone.

In 1776, James Wyatt succeeded Henry Keene as Surveyor to Westminster Abbey.

James Wyatt was now the principal architect of the day, the recipient of more commissions than he could well fulfil.

In 1804, Jeffry James Wyatt told Farington that his uncle had lost "many great commissions" by such neglect.

James Wyatt was a brilliant but facile designer, whose work is not characterized by any markedly individual style.

Every Georgian architect was called upon from time to time to produce designs in the medieval style, and James Wyatt was by no means the first in the field.

However, whereas his predecessors had merely Gothicized their elevations by the addition of battlements and pointed windows, James Wyatt went further and exploited to the full the picturesque qualities of medieval architecture by irregular grouping and the addition of towers and spires to his silhouettes.

James Wyatt was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785, and took an active part in the politics of the Academy.

In 1803 he was one of the members of the Council which attempted to assert its independence of the General Assembly of Academicians, and when the resultant dissensions led Benjamin West to resign the Presidency in the following year, it was James Wyatt who was elected to take his place.

James Wyatt was one of the founders of the Architects' Club in 1791, and sometimes presided at its meetings at the Thatched House Tavern.

In 1802 James Wyatt built a new house for the 7th Earl of Bridgewater on the Ashridge estate in Hertfordshire which is a Grade I listed building.

James Wyatt died on 4 September 1813 as the result of an accident to the carriage in which he was travelling over the Marlborough Downs with his friend and employer, Christopher Bethell-Codrington of Dodington Park.

James Wyatt left a widow and four sons, of whom the eldest, Benjamin Dean, and the youngest, Philip, were notable architects.