Matthew Brettingham the Younger [SEP] date of birth
Matthew Brettingham the Younger
Matthew Brettingham the Younger (1725 – 18 March 1803) was an architect. He was the eldest son of Matthew Brettingham the Elder and worked also in Palladian style.
He travelled to Italy in 1747, where he purchased sculptures and artwork for his British patrons, including Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester. He returned to England in 1754.
One of his patrons, Frederick North, Lord North, made him President of the Board of Green Cloth. North and Brettingham had met as
15,000 (£ in 2020), an enormous amount at the time. However, part of this sum was probably used to acquire the statuary in Italy (documented as supplied by Matthew Brettingham the Younger) for the nearly completed Holkham Hall. Matthew Brettingham the Younger wrote that his father "considered the building of Holkham as the great work of his life". While the design of that great monumental house, which still stands, cannot truly be accredited to him, it is the building for which Brettingham is best remembered