George Aitchison

For the Scotland rugby union player, see George Aitchison (rugby union).

Professor George Aitchison (Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1900)

George Aitchison Jr. RA (London 7 November 1825 – 16 May 1910) was a British architect and academic[1][2] of "considerable reputation".[3]

He was the son of architect, civil engineer, and surveyor George Aitchison (1792–1861),[4][5] and educated at Merchant Taylors' School[6] then University College London, obtaining a first class Bachelor of Arts degree (with honours in animal physiology[a]) in 1850.[8][9]

His best-known work is Leighton House in Kensington, described by architectural historian J. Mordaunt Crook as "one of the most innovative houses of the Victorian period",[10] which he designed for his friend, the artist Frederic Leighton.[11][12][13] This generated a number of commissions from well-heeled clients and "established him as a master of decoration and ornament".[14] Moncure D. Conway considered the house of Frederick Lehman in Berkeley Square to be Aitchison's "chef-d'œuvre", noting that the rooms he completed "would fein see themselves hung upon the walls of the Royal Academy, and not merely the designs of some of them, which were, indeed exhibited there".[15]

Aitchison became an associate member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1881 and a full member in 1898,[b] and was Professor of Architecture there from 1887[17][18] to 1905. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1862, and after serving as its vice-president from 1889 to 1893, succeeded Francis Penrose as president from 1896 to 1899. He was awarded their Royal Gold Medal in 1898.[19][20]

  1. ^ "Obituary – Mr. George Aitchison, R.A.". The Times. No. 39274. London. 17 May 1910. p. 10.
  2. ^ Felstead, Alison; Franklin, Jonathan & Pinfield, Leslie (1993). Directory of British Architects 1834-1900. London: Mansell Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 0720121582 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ Curl, James Stevens (2006). "Aitchison, George, jun.". A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (Second ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780198606789 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ "Memoirs – Mr. George Aitchison". Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 21. London: Institution of Civil Engineers: 569–571. 1862 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Colvin, Howard (1978). "Aitchison, George (1792–1861)". A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840. London: John Murray. p. 61. ISBN 0719533287 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ Robinson, Charles J. (1883). A Register of the Scholars Admitted Into Merchant Taylors' School: from A.D. 1562 to 1874. Vol. II. Lewes: Farncombe & Co. p. 260 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ Bellot, H. Hale (1929). University College, London 1826–1926. London: University of London Press. p. 298 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ "University Intelligence". The Times. No. 20639. London. 6 November 1850. p. 3.
  9. ^ "University Intelligence". The Times. No. 20664. London. 5 December 1850. p. 8.
  10. ^ Crook, J. Mordaunt (2004). "Aitchison, George (1825–1910)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30356. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  11. ^ Gere, Charlotte (May 2010). "Leighton House: Its Rise, Fall, And Rise". Apollo. Vol. 171. London: Press Holdings Media Group. pp. 54–59. ISSN 0003-6536.
  12. ^ Droth, Martina (2011). "Leighton's House: Art In and Beyond the Studio". Journal of Design History. 24 (4): 339–358. doi:10.1093/jdh/epr038. ISSN 0952-4649. JSTOR 41419642 – via JSTOR.
  13. ^ Abrahams, Tim (February 2023). "There's No Place Like Home". Architectural Record. New York: BNP Media. pp. 52–57. ISSN 0003-858X.
  14. ^ Lever, Jill & Richardson, Margaret (1984). The Art of the Architect: Treasures from the RIBA's Collections. London: Trefoil Books. p. 25. ISBN 0862940605 – via Internet Archive.
  15. ^ Conway, Moncure Daniel (1882). Travels in South Kensington, with Notes on Decorative Art and Architecture in England. London: Trübner & Co. p. 159 – via HathiTrust.
  16. ^ Hodgson & Eaton (1905), p. 376.
  17. ^ "The Royal Academy". The Times. No. 32019. London. 14 March 1887. p. 6.
  18. ^ Hodgson & Eaton (1905), pp. 359, 367.
  19. ^ Cooper, Thompson (1884). Men Of The Time: A Dictionary Of Contemporaries (11th ed.). London: George Routledge and Son. p. 15 – via Internet Archive.
  20. ^ "The late Professor Aitchison, R.A." Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Vol. 17, no. 14. London. 28 May 1910. pp. 581–583 – via Internet Archive.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).