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Architectural Visions of early fancy in the gay morning of youth and dreams in the even'g of life
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Joseph Michael Gandy ARA (1771 - 1843)
Architectural Visions of early fancy in the gay morning of youth and dreams in the even'g of life
1820
Watercolour on paper
Inscription: [Title] ARCHITECTURAL / Visions of early fancy in the gay morning of youth / And dreams in the eveng / of life [inscribed on a rock lower right]
Museum number: P81
On display: Picture Room - inside planes (by arrangement or on some pre-booked tours)
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit - not all tours show the inside of all planes.
Curatorial note
Exhib: RA 1820, no. 894 under John Soane's name as was usual (its pair, P87 was exhibited in 1818, unusually, under Gandy's name).
The title is a quotation. In Lecture VI (David Watkin John Soane: Enlightenment Thought and the Royal Academy Lectures p.576) Soane writes: Nothing can be more useful to the student than his own theoretical dreams of magnificent compositions produced by a warm imagination
‘…in the gay morn of life,
When hope shone bright, and all the prospect
smil’d’.
Watkin identifies the quote as coming from Mark Akenside The Pleasures of the Imagination (1757) book III of which there is a copy in Soane's Library (book record 4004, PC 103.1) lines 346-47. However, it in fact seems to come from a later edition: The poetical works: of Mark Akenside. In two volumes. With the life of the author, 1772 [pt.1] p.180 where the exact lines are: "And Memory divine, Pierian Maids! / "Hear me propitious. In the morn of life, / "When hope shone bright and all the prospect smil'd, / "To your sequester'd mansion oft' my step / ..."
The title is a quotation. In Lecture VI (David Watkin John Soane: Enlightenment Thought and the Royal Academy Lectures p.576) Soane writes: Nothing can be more useful to the student than his own theoretical dreams of magnificent compositions produced by a warm imagination
‘…in the gay morn of life,
When hope shone bright, and all the prospect
smil’d’.
Watkin identifies the quote as coming from Mark Akenside The Pleasures of the Imagination (1757) book III of which there is a copy in Soane's Library (book record 4004, PC 103.1) lines 346-47. However, it in fact seems to come from a later edition: The poetical works: of Mark Akenside. In two volumes. With the life of the author, 1772 [pt.1] p.180 where the exact lines are: "And Memory divine, Pierian Maids! / "Hear me propitious. In the morn of life, / "When hope shone bright and all the prospect smil'd, / "To your sequester'd mansion oft' my step / ..."
Literature
Margaret Richardson, 'Imaginative Compositions' in Margaret Richardson and Mary-Ann Stevens (eds), John Soane Architect: Master of Space and Light, Royal Academy, 1999, p.276 and pp.280-281, cat. no. 211.
Brian Lukacher, Joseph Gandy: An Architectural Visionary in Georgian England, Thames and Hudson 2006, p.138-139
Roberto Rossi, 'Architectural Visions of Early Fancy: Soane, Gandy and Mausolea' in Mausolus: The Journal of the Mausolea and Monuments Trust, Summer 2022, pp.6-21.
Helen Dorey, 'The place of models and drawings in Sir John Soane's House and Museum' in Federica Goffi (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Architectural Drawings and Models, 2022, pp. 80-99.
Brian Lukacher, Joseph Gandy: An Architectural Visionary in Georgian England, Thames and Hudson 2006, p.138-139
Roberto Rossi, 'Architectural Visions of Early Fancy: Soane, Gandy and Mausolea' in Mausolus: The Journal of the Mausolea and Monuments Trust, Summer 2022, pp.6-21.
Helen Dorey, 'The place of models and drawings in Sir John Soane's House and Museum' in Federica Goffi (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Architectural Drawings and Models, 2022, pp. 80-99.
Exhibition history
Metropole London 1800 bis 1840, Villa Hügel, Essen, 6 June - 8 November 1992
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
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
Associated items
P87, pair
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