Charles Cameron

This article is about the architect. On the officer and consul, see Charles Duncan Cameron .

Charles Cameron (1800)

Charles Cameron (* around 1743 in London ; † spring 1812 in Saint Petersburg ) was a Scottish architect who mainly worked for the Tsarina Catherine II in Russia .

Life

Cameron was born around 1743 (according to other sources 1740) as the son of a carpenter and builder of Scottish origin in London. Later claims by Cameron that he was the nephew of Miss Jenny Cameron of Glendessary , and therefore a close relative of the chiefs of Clan Cameron , and that he grew up in the court of the pretender to the throne James III , are proven to be false.

Cameron was initially an apprentice to his father, possibly later to the guild master Isaac Ware . After his death, the plates of the engravings for a new edition of the Fabbriche Antiche of Lord Burlington prepared by Ware apparently came into Cameron's possession, which were based on Andrea Palladio 's drawings .

In 1768 Cameron traveled to Rome to carry out excavations and measurements in the ruins of the imperial baths with the approval of the Pope . Together with a treatise on the ancient bathing system, he published his results in 1772 in the monumental table work The Baths of the Romans ... , which appeared bilingual in English and French, and wanted to correct and supplement the relevant drawings by Palladio.

There are no records of any Cameron buildings from his time in England or Italy. Nevertheless, in 1779 he was appointed to the Russian court by Catherine II as an architect, where he first redecorated some rooms in the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo . Between 1781 and 1784 he married Catherine Busch, a daughter of the Tsarina's gardener, John Busch , who was also brought from England . Until 1785 he built the agate pavilion, the baths and the gallery named after him for the tsarina in Tsarskoe Selo. For the heir to the throne, he built the palace in Pavlovsk near Saint Petersburg in 1782–1786 .

After the Tsarina died in 1796, Cameron was relieved of his office by her successor Paul I , but in 1800 he again planned some buildings for him in the Pavlovsk Park. In the years 1799–1803 he built the Rosumowskyj Palace in Baturyn for the Ukrainian hetman Kyrylo Rosumowskyj . Czar Alexander I , crowned in 1801, appointed Cameron the Admiralty's First Architect. Cameron died in St. Petersburg in the spring of 1812 . Some of his posthumous drawings came to England, but were bought by the Tsar's court in 1820 and are now in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

In addition to his studies of Roman architecture, Cameron's classical style was strongly influenced by Robert Adam and Charles-Louis Clérisseau , but Cameron also took inspiration from classical Greek architecture at an early stage.

Fonts

• The Baths of the Romans explained and illustrated: with the restorations of Palladio corrected and improved… 1st edition London 1772, 2nd edition London 1775.

buildings

• Furnishing of the first apartment in the Catherine Palace Tsarskoye Selo (1780–1782)
• Temple of Friendship in Pavlovsk Park (1780)
• Furnishing of the fourth apartment in the Catherine Palace Tsarskoye Selo (1781–1784)
• Furnishing of the fifth apartment (= private rooms of the Tsarina) in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo (1782–1784)
• Sophia Church, Tsarskoe Selo (1782)
• Cold bath at the Catherine Palace Tsarskoye Selo (1784)
• Cameron Gallery at the Catherine Palace, Tsarskoye Selo
• Pavlovsk Palace (1780–1786, completed by Brenna)
• Pavilion of the Three Graces in Pavlovsk Park (1800)

literature

• Isobel Rae, Charles Cameron. Architect to the Court of Russia. London: Elek Books (1971)

Web links

Commons : Charles Cameron  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• About Cameron buildings in Russia (English)