2-721-210 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Central or Loan Court, South Kensington Museum', c1860s, (1881). View of the South Court, a vast two-storey glass roofed gallery, which was considered the centrepiece of the Museum, completed in 1862 by architect Francis Fowke, a captain in the Royal Engineers. The space comprises two long double-height rectangular galleries linked by a two-storey arcaded corridor and decorated in an elaborate combination of cast iron, mosaic, stencilling, painted panels and frescos. The arcade niches around the upper level contained 35 full-length, life-size mosaic panel portraits of painters, sculptors, architects and craftsmen, designed by established contemporary artists. From "The South Kensington Museum", a book of engraved illustrations, with descriptions, of the works of art in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. [Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, London, 1881]