frame inscribed: Design for Royal Gallery, New House of Lords. (Sir J Soane. 1823-4.)

• exhibited 1824

Pen and watercolour technique (1030 x 770), framed in North Drawing Room

Joseph Michael Gandy ARA (1771 - 1843)

Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1824 (no. 965) as a 'View of a design for His Majesty's entrance into the House of Lords, erected between the 3rd October 1823 and the 29th January 1824' (RA exhibitors...), this drawing was made by Joseph Michael Gandy (1771-1843) and shows the Royal Gallery as executed, except for the ornamentation, which is here very minimal. 'The Royal Gallery and its Anteroom formed the final phase of Soane's Royal Entrance suite and were constructed with great rapidity in the autumn and winter of 1823-24. That spring, however, his works at the Palace of Westminster came under attack in Parliament and in the press. In particular, an anonymous attack entitled 'The Sixth or Boetian Order of Architecture', in Knight's Quarterly Magazine, derided the Royal Entrance for "the quantity and singularity of the ornament distributed over it" (vol. II, London, 1824, p. 457). In response, it seems, Soane exhibited this perspective by Gandy at that spring's Royal Gallery [sic - ?Academy] exhibition. This shows it stripped of furnishings and its most novel ornamentation. While the unrolled plan in the foreground might imply ongoing construction, this may be understood as Soane's attempt to focus attention on the architectural qualities rather than the decorative excesses of the space' (S. Sawyer in op. cit., above, p. 263).

M. Richardson and M. Stevens, 'John Soane, Architect: Master of Space and Light', 1999, p. 263.

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