Paul Sandby, The North Terrace, Windsor Castle, Looking West, c.1765. © Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Paul Mellon Collection
Paul Sandby RA (1731 – 1809): Picturing Britain, A Bicentenary Exhibition, the Sackler Wing of Galleries, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, until June 13 2010
Picturing Britain celebrates the bicentenary of the death of Paul Sandby - one of the Royal Academy’s founder members.
Featuring over 80 diverse works covering watercolour, cartography, etching and oils, the Royal Academy is the fitting final stop in a three-leg tour of an exhibition which has already been to Nottingham and Edinburgh - two other cities with strong links to Sandby.
Sandby had a meticulous eye for detail. Originally a map-maker who turned his cartographer's eye to the painting of landscapes, these paintings and sketches depict a nation undergoing social, economic and political change. It was a time of dramatic physical transformation as towns and cities were redesigned and restructured under the influence of the industrial revolution.
It was, then, an interesting time to be a painter and Sandby’s career lasted for well over 50 years, documenting a period of history stretching from the Jacobite Rebellion to the Napoleonic war.
Paul Sandby, Part of Wenlock Abbey in Shropshire, c.1770s. © Royal Academy of Arts/M. Slingsby
Even a brief walk around the exhibition shows Sandby’s vast range of artistic skills and techniques. His pictures span the mediums of watercolour, oils, cartography and etching and often his works merges two or more of these skills and techniques.
The first room showcases some of the young Sandby’s impressive cartographic pieces, which are incredibly rich and complex. The highlight is the multi-sheet map of Culloden Moor, the location of the fiercely fought Battle of Culloden which may not have proved to be so popular on the Scottish leg of the tour.
Paul Sandby, Horse Fair on Bruntsfield Links, Edinburgh, 1750. ©National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. Photo Antonia Reeve.
Moving on a set of 12 London Cries is a set of caricatures of London’s poor and tradespeople trying to scrape a living in the capital in the 18th century.
Whereas Hogarth sentimentalised London’s poor, Sandby’s depictions show a vicious and violent side to the traders - like the haggard fishwife flogging her wares who has scared the people in the background.
If you look closely at the later landscapes in the exhibition it is possible to pick out miniature versions of these caricatures milling around in the background – another example of the merging of his various skills.
The exhibition ends with a room of Sandby’s estate portraits and includes views of Luton Park that have never been on public display. Sandby was one of the first British artists to paint individual species of tree and captured in detail their growth patterns and roles in the countryside.
Paul Sandby, The Studio of Paul Sandby, St. George’s Row, c.1772, Nottingham City Museums and Galleries
Although he is described as the father of landscape painting and watercolour, the public quickly became more interested in younger artists such as Constable. However the impressive display of work in Picturing Britain may go some way in redressing Sandby’s position in British art history.
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