Sunset (recto); and a Study of St. Paul's Cathedral, London (verso)

The present sheet was one of several landscape sketches by Joseph Gandy from the 1820s which were acquired from him by his friend, the Neoclassical sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott (1775-1856). Westmacott had studied in Rome with Gandy, and sometimes purchased works from his often impecunious friend. He later assembled these watercolours in two albums which he gave to his daughter Maria Poole. One of these albums is today in the Sir John Soane Museum, London, while the other album was eventually broken up and the drawings dispersed in 2004. The present sheet was part of this second album, which was titled 'GANDY / VOL II / LANDSCAPE' on the spine, and inscribed, by Richard Westmacott, 'Gandy’s sketches / I give / Maria' on the inside cover. The album contained 97 watercolours of landscapes drawn in London and its outskirts, as well as views in Surrey, East and West Sussex, and Kent, together with a number of studies of skies, clouds, sunsets, storms and nocturnal views. Many of the watercolours in the Westmacott album, which appear to have come from one or more sketchbooks used by the artist, were variously inscribed by Gandy with the location, date (between 15 July 1820 and the 5 July 1826) and time that the watercolours were executed.