Charles Cameron (architect)

Charles Cameron ( * 1743 in London, † the spring of 1812) was a Scottish architect who worked mainly for the Empress Catherine II in Russia.

Life

Cameron was born in 1743 (according to other sources 1740), the son of a Scottish -born carpenter and builder in London. Subsequent allegations Cameron, he was the nephew of Miss Jenny Cameron of Glendessary, thus a close relative of the Chiefs of the Clan Cameron, and grew up at the court of the pretender to the throne James III, are demonstrably false.

Cameron was first apprenticed to his father, possibly later in the Guild Master Isaac Ware. After his death the plates of stitches apparently came to a prepared of goods reissue of Fabbriche Antiche by Lord Burlington in Cameron's possession that were based on the posthumous drawings of Andrea Palladio.

1768 Cameron traveled to Rome in order to make there with the permission of the Pope and allowances excavations in the ruins of the imperial baths. Together with a treatise on the ancient bathing culture he published his results in 1772 in the monumental Tafelwerk The Baths of the Romans ..., published bilingually in English and French, and wanted to correct and supplement the relevant drawings by Palladio.

From his time in England and in Italy No buildings are occupied by Cameron. Nevertheless, he was appointed in 1779 by Catherine II as an architect to the Russian court, where he first re- equipped some rooms in the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. Between 1781 and 1784, he married Catherine Busch, a daughter of England also fetched from the gardener Zarin, John Busch. Until 1785 he built for the Empress in Tsarskoye Selo the Agate Pavilion, the baths and the gallery named after him. For the heir to the throne he built the palace in 1782-1786 Pavlovsk near St. Petersburg.

After the death of Empress 1796 Cameron was relieved by her successor Paul I of his offices, planned for him but back in 1800 some of the buildings in the park of Pawlosk. In the years 1799-1803 he built the Rosumowskyj Palace in the Ukrainian Hetman Kyrylo Baturyn for Rosumowskyj. The winning 1801 Tsar Alexander I appointed Cameron as First architect of the Admiralty. Cameron died in the spring of 1812 in St. Petersburg. Part of his posthumous drawings came to England, but were in 1820 purchased by the Tsar's court and are now in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Cameron's Neoclassical style was heavily influenced by Robert Adam and Charles Louis Clérisseau except from his studies of Roman architecture, but took Cameron also early suggestions from classical Greek architecture.

Writings

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

Buildings

  • Establishment of the first apartments in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo (1780-1782)
  • Temple of friendship in Pavlovsk Park (1780 )
  • Establishment of the Fourth apartments in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo (1781-1784)
  • Establishment of the Fifth Apartments ( = private rooms of the Empress ) in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo ( 1782-1784 )
  • Sophia Church, Tsarskoye Selo ( 1782 )
  • Cold bath in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo (1784 )
  • Cameron Gallery at the Catherine Palace, Tsarskoye Selo
  • Pavlovsk Palace (1780-1786, completed by Brenna )
  • Pavilion of the Three Graces in the park of Pavlovsk (1800)
Thermal bath Pavlovsk, Saint Petersburg Paul I of Russia Integrated Authority File
177316
de