It’s always a joy to visit the Sir John Soane Museum but right now, if you pick your way through the small rooms filled with sculptures, artefacts and artworks from the ancient world, you will find the Picture Room nestling at the back of this crowded house. The small gallery is hosting a very intriguing exhibition by Dutch artist Bouke de Vries. He has found a clever way to reference the famous Hogarth paintings which can be seen (at specific times) in the gallery which was specially built by Sir John Soane to house his wonderful pictures. The Rake’s Progress is a set of eight canvases which chart the decline of its eponymous hero. And it doesn’t end well. De Vries takes the eight stages of his decline and represents them in porcelain pots which resemble apothecary’s vessels of the eighteenth century. Each vessel is uniform in the beginning but the dissolution is represented by cracks, breaks, ‘exploding’ clay, mending, repairs, and, ultimately ends with a vessel which contains the broken shards of other pots, all cracked and in a state of collapse. Each pot is topped by a charming figure representing the foolish young Tom Rakewell. The pots are made with celadon glazes.

Upstairs in the architecture gallery is a very appealing exhibition on the work of London architects and the houses they’ve designed and built for themselves. You could argue that creating your own home is both the ultimate act of self-expression and also an impressive platform for your work and a statement of self-belief. Very interesting to see the plans for The Red House by William Morris and Philip Webb, the plans and photographs of 2 Willow Road built by Erno Goldfinger, Michael and Patty Hopkins’ House in Hampstead which is an audacious glass and steel structure, the Cosmic house conceived by Charles Jencks and Maggie Keswick Jencks with Terry Farrell which involved completely rebuilding a Victorian terrace house and 9-10 Stock Orchard Street which was created for the family of Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till.

Above: Shot of the interior of 9-10 Orchard Street, a chair specifically designed for Charles and Maggie Jencks’ Cosmic House and a design for a mosaic made for them by Eduardo Paolozzi.

The Soane Museum organised these exhibitions to tie in with the London Festival of Architecture. Entry is free. http://www.soane.org.