Joseph Michael Gandy ARA (1771–1843) was born in London, the son of Thomas Gandy, a waiter at White’s Club in St James’s. He showed talent for drawing at an early age and was taken on as a pupil by the architect James Wyatt at the age of fifteen. In 1789 he entered the Royal Academy Schools and the following year was awarded the Gold Medal for a drawing of ‘A Triumphal Arch’.
In 1794 he travelled to Italy at the expense of John Martindale, proprietor of White's, where he spent three years, mainly in Rome, winning a medal in the prestigious Concorso Clementino sponsored by the Accademia di San Luca in 1795. Returning to England in 1797, he found employment as a draughtsman in the office of Sir John Soane. He practised on his own from 1801 and in 1803 was elected ARA, however, ultimately he built very little in his career, having a reputation as a difficult individual to deal with. It is for his innovative visionary work, creating architectural fantasies, playing upon historical, literary and mythological themes, that Gandy is best known.
His work included the Phoenix Fire and Pelican Life Insurance Offices in London (1804–1805, destroyed c.1920); the gallery at Doric House at Sion Hill in Bath for Charles Spackman (1818); and the remodelling of Swerford Park house in Oxfordshire for General Bolton (1824–1829).
