Joseph Gandy
1771–1843 · English painter and visionary architect
Joseph Michael Gandy (1771-1843) was an English painter, visionary architect and architectural theorist, best known for his imaginative paintings and watercolours of the architectural designs of John Soane. He worked with Soane as a draughtsman and creative partner from 1798 until 1809, when he set up his own practice, a venture that ultimately failed.
Trained in the office of James Wyatt and at the Royal Academy Schools, he travelled to Italy from 1794 to 1797, funded by John Martindale, proprietor of White's. On his return he joined Soane's office. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1803, perhaps thanks to Soane's influence. He built little; his works include the Phoenix Fire and Pelican Life insurance offices in London, since demolished, and the remodelling of Swerford Park in Oxfordshire.
His paintings show dramatic two-point perspective and great architectural precision, and share with Soane a fascination with Roman ruins. His architectural fantasies owe a clear debt to Piranesi and draw on historical, literary and mythological themes, with a sense of the sublime comparable to that of Turner and John Martin. He was a commercial failure and spent two periods in a debtors' prison. He died in a private asylum in Plympton in 1843. Many of his paintings are held in the Picture Room of Sir John Soane's Museum in London.