as above, (wall panels) P^r Cent, L to Z / te----- [illegible] to Annuities, A to K, Long Ann--- [illegible]

• June 7^th 1798

Pen and sepia, blue, burnt umber, yellow ochre and brown madder washes, watercolour technique, within five-ruled sepia and black wash border on laid paper with one fold mark (567 x 940)

Joseph Michael Gandy (1771-1843) (see Notes below)

J Whatman 1794

This lush watercolour perspective in a horizontal landscape format is by Joseph Michael Gandy (1771-1843) who was an assistant in Soane's office from 1798 to 1801. He then set up his own practice but continued to work as Soane's perspectivist until the latter's death in 1837. This drawing shows the Bank Stock Office in the form it was completed some five years earlier with its central stove, counters and desks, and wall panels including signs on the north wall for the Long Annuities business (not shown in other views).
Gandy's technique emphasises the picturesque play of light and shade and exaggerates the hall's width, monumentalising and opening it up to the beholder's gaze. Staffage and part of the inner ring of counters are omitted to focus attention fully on the architectural setting.
The specific purpose of the image is unclear. It may have been intended for the Royal Academy's annual exhibition, but was not shown. Gandy, according to the Office Day Book, spent a considerable time in the spring and summer of 1798 drawing other perspectives of Soane's Transfer Offices, Rotunda, and new Lothbury (or Stock Office) Court, suggesting that this drawing may have been part of a set made for Soane's own gratification, documenting the work so far at the Bank.
The view compares interestingly with drawing 2, and drawing M39(i) at the Bank of England Museum (views of the preliminary 1791 triple-lantern scheme from a similar position), highlighting the built hall's pronounced centrality and variety of lighting effects.

D. Abramson, Building the Bank of England: money, architecture, society 1694-1942, 2005, p. 106; M. Richardson & M. Stevens (ed.), John Soane architect: master of space and light, Royal Academy of Arts, 1999, pp. 227-26, cat. 127; E. Schumann-Bacia, John Soane and the Bank of England, 1991, pp. 54-55, ill. 41; J. Summerson, 'Soane: the man and the style', John Soane, 1983, fig. 9, J. Summerson, 'The evolution of Soane's Bank Stock Office in the Bank of England', The unromantic castle, 1990, p. 143, ill. 121; P. Thornton and H. Dorey, A miscellany of objects from Sir John Soane's Museum, 1994, p. 37, fig. 31

Drawing

John Soane Architect: Master of Space and Light, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 11 September - 3 December 1999; Centro Palladio, Vicenza, April - August 2000; Hôtel de Rohan, Paris, January - April 2001; Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, 16 May - 3 September 2001; Real Academia des Bellas Artes, Madrid, October - December 2001
Soane's Magician: The Tragic Genius of Joseph Michael Gandy, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 31 March - 12 August 2006

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation

If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk