An often overlooked but crucial detail of historical landscape art is “staffage”—the miniature people, animals, and objects that give scale and bring life to such pieces. A new exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum explores these figures, focusing particularly on classic Georgian architectural drawings of the 18th century. Many of the drawings were actually used to sell homes to the elite, and they’re much more than our modern-day floor plans. Meanwhile, the well-dressed people in the drawings offer cultural insights through their fashions and demographics. —Lucy Horowitz