Joseph Michael Gandy, A.R.A.

Possibly, London, British Institution, 1821.

ENGRAVED

Robert Wallis for The Amulet, or Christian and Literary Rembrancer, London, 1826.

This painting is one of Joseph Michael Gandy's grandest imaginary reconstructions of a classical cityscape. The artist's preferred medium was watercolor, and this painting is one of his rare works in oil on canvas. The only other comparable example in both scale and subject is now in The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation.¹ In both instances, Gandy illustrates extraordinary deftness at rendering spatial complexity and the use of small figural vignettes. 

Working in the first part of the 19th century, Gandy is often compared to J.M.W. Turner by contemporary critics because his landscapes call to mind the sublime and reflect the Romantic movement. He found creative refuge in painting architectural fantasies which evoked dreamlike compositions of ancient sites through archaeological accuracy and sheer poetic invention. 

The present picture was engraved, with some minor changes, as "The Temple of Victory" in a literary annual called The Amulet in 1826. A smaller autograph version of the composition, executed in watercolor, is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.²

1. Oil on canvas, 59 by 79 1/2 in. https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/jupiter-pluvius-230225.

2. Inv. no. 239.79, watercolor. 3 by 4 1/2 in. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1278519/a-temple-of-victory-watercolour-gandy/.