Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/408

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Gandy
402
Gandy

the screen, arcade, and wings of the offices were also completed by him. He was still harassed by an opposition which was carried into the Irish Parliament. He presented drawings for the Military Hospital in Phoenix Park (carried out under W. Gibson); in 1791-4 erected Carlisle Bridge; and on 1 Aug. 1795 laid the first stone of the King's Inns, Henrietta Street. In anticipation of the rebellion he removed to London in 1797, but returned in 1799 to finish the Inns of Court. About 1806 he defended himself in a vigorous letter against Lord-chancellor Redesdale, who had expressed dissatisfaction at the progress of the work. Resigning the control of the Inns of Court to his pupil, H. A. Baker, he retired in 1808 to Lucan, near Dublin, where he had bought, in 1805, an estate called Canon Brook. The improvements which he effected in planting are eulogised by contemporary writers (cf. Carlisle, Topographical Dict, of Ireland, s.v. 'Canon Brook'). He prepared plans for private residences and further improvements in Dublin architecture. None of the latter were carried out. The small library at Charlemont House, Dublin, is perhaps a work of 1782; the excise office in London, pulled down in 1854, sometimes attributed to him, is a work of W. Robinson. After many years' torture from gout he died on 24 Dec. 1823, and three days later was buried by his own desire in the same vault with his friend Francis Grose [q. v.] in the private chapel of Drumcondra, near Dublin. He was elected in 1791 an original honorary member of the Architects' Club in London, and in 1797 a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He was also one of the original members of the Royal Irish Academy. He etched several plates after landscapes by Richard Wilson, R. A. His essays 'On the Progress of Architecture in Ireland,' and 'Hints for erecting Testimonials' are printed in Thomas J. Mulvany's 'Life of James Gandon,' 8vo, Dublin, 1846, which was arranged by his only son, James Gandon, and gives his portrait.

[Mulvany's Life; Dict. of Architecture (Arch. Publ. Soc.), iii. 10-11; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography, pp. 217, 584; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists, 1878, pp. 165-6; Gent. Mag. xciv. pt. i. 464; Builder, 1847, v. 1.]

G. G.

GANDY, JAMES (1619–1689), portrait-painter, born in 1619, was probably a native of Exeter. He is stated to have been a pupil of Vandyck, and to have acquired to some degree the style of that master. He has even been supposed to have assisted Vandyck by painting the drapery in his pictures.

In 1661 he was taken to Ireland by his patron, the Duke of Ormonde, and remained there until his death in 1689. He executed a number of copies of portraits by Vandyck for the duke's collection at Kilkenny, some of which were sold at the dispersal of that collection as original works. His principal portraits were done in Ireland, and remain there. One of the Duke of Ormonde was in the possession of the Earl of Leicester. Gandy is worthy of notice as one of the earliest native English painters. He was father of William Gandy [q. v.]

[Pilkington's Dict. of Painters, ed. 1805; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Dallaway and Wornum; Cotton's Life of Reynolds; Northcote's Life of Reynolds (Appendix).]

L. C.

GANDY, JOHN PETER (1787–1850). [See Deering.]

GANDY, JOSEPH MICHAEL (1771–1843), architect, elder brother of John Peter Gandy-Deering [see Deering], and also of Michael Gandy [q. v.], was a pupil of James Wyatt, and a student of the Royal Academy, where in 1790 he obtained the gold medal for his design for a triumphal arch. From 1793-9 he travelled, and in 1794 was at Rome, where in 1795 he received the pope's medal in the first class for architecture. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1789 as Wyatt's pupil, sending a 'design for a casino,' and was from that time a frequent exhibitor up to 1838; he was elected an associate in 1803. In 1811 Gandy became connected with Sir John Soane [q. v.], and executed numerous drawings for him. His imagination and genius, which were of the first order, were now chiefly employed on works for which Soane got the chief credit. Certain drawings of great excellence exhibited at the Academy in Soane's name after he had become blind were no doubt the work of Gandy alone. Gandy, though an excellent draughtsman, seems to have been of too odd and impracticable a nature to insure prosperity, and it is said that his life was one of poverty and disappointment, ending, according to some accounts, in insanity. He died in December 1843, leaving a son, Thomas Gandy, who practised portrait-painting. Gandy was an excellent architect of the neo-classical school. Perhaps his best known work is shown in the Phoenix and Pelican Insurance offices at Charing Cross. He was largely employed on domestic architecture. Among his designs may be noted a 'Design for a National Institution appropriated to the Fine Arts, the Sciences, and Literature of our Kingdom;' this was embellished with busts and figures by Thomas Baxter, and engraved by John Le Keux. Gandy published in 1805 'Designs for Cottages, Cottage Farms,