J FIELD (BRITISH, ACT. 1821)
The Beast Room of the Royal Menagerie Change
signed 'I. Field, 1821' (lower right)
Extensively inscribed (verso):
On the verso is written in very clear hand: (sic)
'This drawing of the beast room of the Royal Managerie of Exeter Change by I. Field was acceopted by the Council of the Royal Academy April 1821 ad was among the number received over what was not hung fro(m) want of room, they having received several hundred more than could be exhibited. Signed I. Field.' (sic)
watercolour wash and point of brush in monochrome
18.5 x 28.5 cm

The Exeter Change was a popular and presidegous shopping desination situated on the site of Exeter House in London (home to the Earls of Exeter), on the north side of the Strand. In the late 1700s the upper floors of the building were transformed by a Mr Piddock into the menagerie which was visited by many of the country's elite. For example, in a diary entry dated November 14th 1813, Lord Byron wrote of his visit and interactions with the animals housed there. Another example of an artistic study of this space was produced within Rudolph Ackermann The Repository of Arts volume 8 July 1812.

Byron, George, Gordon, Baron, and Moore, Thomas, Life, Letters and Journals of Lord Byron (1839)
Rudolph Ackermann The Repository of Arts volume 8 July 1812.