John Donowell
John Donowell was a little-known, eighteenth-century British architect and engraver, known as the author of some drawings for architectural refurbishment at West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire, although the attribution of the north front to him remains dubious. It is more likely the work of Isaac Ware or Roger Morris, basing their designs on original ideas of the patron Sir Francis Dashwood. The South Front is another Dashwood idea, based on the work of Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni and ultimately on Palladio. Donowell is considered to be the equivalent of Thomas Sandby and Thomas Malton as one of the principal architect-draughtsmen in the third quarter of the eighteenth century.
He drew a number of topographical drawings, mostly views of London. His work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in the 1770s and 1780s, and also published as prints during this period.
