James Stuart

James Stuart loved ruins so much he moved to Athens to live in one. The one-time painter-turned-architect spent his days sketching crumbling marble columns under the Greek sun, then shipped the drawings home to London where they set off a neoclassical craze. His 1753 “View of the Temple of Theseus” made the Parthenon look like a quiet English garden, columns stripped of drama, just stone and sky.

If you’ve ever paused in front of a white-columned porch and felt a pang of calm, you’ve felt Stuart’s quiet influence.