Background
Frederick Orchard Lawrence (1893–1971) was awarded the prestigious Rome Scholarship in 1915, which was deferred until 1920 due to the Great War. Winners of the prize were expected to design a restoration project, and Lawrence was drawn to the new excavations being undertaken at Ostia Antica under the direction of Dante Vaglieri and later Guido Calza.
The British School at Rome has 9 restoration drawings of Ostia Antica made by Lawrence in its collection of differing sizes, each made with a pen, pencil and watercolours on paper, which in turn was affixed to a canvas.
Three of the drawings, two of which are presented here, focus on the Insula of the Paintings (Regio I, Insula IV), the excavation of which had recently been completed by Calza at the time of Lawrence’s arrival in Rome.
Photo: F.O.Lawrence in his studio at the BSR. BSR Photographic Archive, BS Collection 0032.
