Lot 24: John Gantz (1772-1853)

North east view of the new bridge near the Goverment Gardens, Madras
signed, inscribed and dated 'North East View of the New Bridge near the Gov t. Gardens/J Gantz. 1807' (on a separate sheet)
pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour, unframed
11 3/4 x 17 1/4 in. (30 x 44 cm.)

John Gantz, probably of Austrian extraction, was employed as a draughtsman and surveyor by the East India Company from about 1800 to 1803, eventually receiving a government pension. In 1807 he was living in Madras. He had two sons, Justinian and Julius Walter, and his work is often confused with that of his son Justinian (1802-62). He is described in the manuscript list of Madras inhabitants dated 25 March 1819 as 'Architect. Native of India.' Of his architectural activities nothing is known unless the houses depicted by him and his son were built to their own designs. Mildred Archer wrote in her description of his drawings (British Drawings in the India Office Library, London 1969, pp. 602-7) that John Gantz had a sturdier, slightly more classical manner, while his son's is more delicate, often with lively figures and feathery trees. As a rule the father signs himself 'John Gantz' or 'I. Gantz'; his son, 'Just Gantz'.

When Edward Clive, afterwards Earl of Powis, was Governor of Madras, the old Government House within Fort St. George was deemed rather cramped and a new Government House with a Banqueting Hall was built on the island in the Coum river just south of the Fort. It appears to have been designed by and was certainly under the supervision of John Goldingham (1767-1844), surveyor, astronomer and Civil Engineer in Madras from 1800 to 1805. The copies made for Lord Clive, of the plans and elevations of the new buildings, are in the British Library (WD962, see Mildred Archer, 'Georgian splendour in south India', Country Life, 26 March 1964, pp. 728-31). Gantz's drawing shows the new bridge linking the Fort to the Island, with the Banqueting Hall the first of the news buildings visible, while the new Government House is further back. Thomas Fraser (b. 1776) of the Madras Engineers claimed to have constructed this bridge in 1804-05 in an inscription on his watercolour of the bridge in a more frontal view in the British Library (WD519, Archer, 1969, p. 429). Gantz worked for Fraser from 1800 to 1803 drawing maps for his surveys of the ceded districts, and in the present watercolour he certainly seems to have imitated his distinctive and precise style.

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