[19] Imaginative reconstruction of Soane's Royal Academy Gold Medal competition design of 1776 made by J.M.Gandy, July-August 1799

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Soane's architectural education: Royal Academy and Italy including measured drawings: 1770-1780
  - Soane's architectural education including theoretical designs made for the Royal Academy Schools and for exhibition at the Royal Academy, 1770-80, and in Italy, 1778-80
    - Design for a Triumphal Bridge for the Royal Academy Schools Gold Medal competition 1776, later revised and sent to the Parma Academy, 1780, with preliminary designs by George Dance, 1776 and ? 1778, and later copies and perspectives, 1796-c.1827 (21)

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Reference number

SM P91

Purpose

[19] Imaginative reconstruction of Soane's Royal Academy Gold Medal competition design of 1776 made by J.M.Gandy, July-August 1799

Aspect

Perspective of part of Soane's design seen from under a portico supported by Corinthian columns with an alcove containing a sculpted group on a pedestal

Medium and dimensions

Watercolour, framed (675 x 1015 approximately)

Hand

J.M.Gandy (1771-1843)

Watermark

n/a

Notes

The Office Day Book has an entry for Saturday 20 July 1799, 'M^r Soane / Interior View of a / Triumphal Bridge / ¼ day / M^rsSoane / Hanging of Pictures / in Back Drawing Room / ½ day / Gandy'. From 22 to 27 July (6 working days) there are further entries for an 'Interior view ...' . From 29 July to 8 August (10¼ working days) there are entries for 'Perspective View under the Portico of a Triumphal Bridge' . It is assumed that some or all of these entries refer to the drawing catalogued above.

Gandy's drawing was made six months after Seward's view of the same subject (see SM volume 60/175). They occasionally worked together on the early stages of a drawing, for example, 'Section of a Room' , as recorded in the office Day Book for 31 October to 7 November 1798; with Gandy finishing it on 8th and 12th to 14th November. A comparison between the two 'Interior Views' shows Gandy's gift for composition and atmosphere. Both drawings have sky, river and bridge in the background, but Gandy's more painterly perspective uses a slightly different viewpoint in which lighting and framing emphasise the foreground and so give a greater sense of place and distance.

Exhib: RA 1799, No.1007

Level

Drawing

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

Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.

Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).