John Gendall was born and spent most of his career in Exeter. His early beginnings were as a manservant to James White, the uncle of the celebrated water-colorist John White Abbott. He became a draughtsman for Charles Cole, a carver and gilder, in whose shop his work came to the attention of the publisher and art dealer Rudolf Ackermann.

James White introduced his young protégé to the architect Sir John Soane who commissioned him to draw a window of Westminster Abbey. In 1811 Gendall joined Ackermann's large studio in The Strand where he became his assistant working on lithographs and as a topographical draughtsman. His painting St Paul's from the Thames dates from just before the artist's return to Exeter i...