During the AD 1700s, Italy had been an essential destination for travellers from northern Europe. Most of these were noble young men on the Grand Tour; others were artists, architects and writers. In the early nineteenth century, some of the more intrepid travellers made their way to Greece and what is now Turkey. Architects in particular gained new inspiration from encountering the physical remains of Greece at first hand rather than through the filter of the Romans. These experiences found expression in a new, Greek, neoclassicism of which the British Museum is one example. Here is a selection of drawings made by travellers in this period.

Temples at Paestum

Print of the temples at Paestum in south Italy by Robert Scott Lauder; 1822.

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Temple of Apollo at Bassae

Drawing of the temple of Apollo at Bassae by Robert Smirke, architect of the British Museum;1802.

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Parthenon in Athens

Drawing of the Parthenon in Athens by William Gell; 1811.

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Temple of Athena Nike

Drawing of the temple of Athena Nike in Athens by James Skene; 1847.

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Temple of Apollo

Print of the temple of Apollo at Didyma in present-day Turkey after a drawing by William Pars; 1779.

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South front of the new British Museum

The south front of the new British Museum; drawing by Frederick Mackenzie; 1850 – 52.

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