In the rapidly changing period of social, economic and cultural transformation of the second half of the 18th century, scientists, artists and others became more curious about the world in which they lived, with some artists combining a scientific with a creative approach to observe and document the landscape and townscape in which they lived. Paul Sandby (1731-1807) was such an artist. He had an eye for detail and accuracy, traits which served him well as a draughtsman at the Military Drawing Office of the Tower of London, where he helped to carry out a survey of the Highlands of Scotland after the 1745 rebellion. In addition to drawings and maps, Sandby produced many topographical drawings, focusing on particular places.
The Sandbys were a modest family. Paul Sandby was the son of a framework knitter in Nottingham. Although highly skilled in using knitting machines, the family income was modest, which precluded Paul from receiving any formal training as an artist in his youth other than from his brother Thomas, who worked as a military draughtsman. Paul later joined his brother, who worked at Windsor Park. While Thomas specialised in architectural drawing, Paul was more versatile, able to turn his hand from map-making and sketching to painting and printmaking – vital skills in enabling him to survive financially.
Determined to become acknowledged as a professional artist, Sandby moved to London’s Soho, then the centre of the art world. Here he soon stirred the art established by taking on one of the most respected artists of the previous generation, William Hogarth, in a series of viciously satirical prints – with the overriding themes of delusion and deformity. Much of his attack centred on Hogarth’s publication The Analysis of Beauty, with Sandby accusing him of plagiarising other people’s ideas.
Despite his lack of formal art education, Sandby was active in supporting the newly established Royal Academy of Arts, writing to King George who agreed to sign the Instruments of Foundation, so associating the institution from its outset with patriotism and national progress. Sandby was elected to the council and also taught in the RA school.
In addition to producing an extensive range of landscape painting and credited with being the first to experiment with the aquatint process in England, Sandby’s work included imaginative figure subjects. Highly detailed and carefully observed, his compositions were fresh and lively, leading Gainsborough to single him out as the only contemporary English landscape artist who painted “real views from nature”. While his aristocratic patrons commissioned topographical scenes, Sandby was quick to realise the potential of the rapidly expanding print market as a means of disseminating his work to a wider audience, leading him to studies of street life, such as The Cries of London. Sandby did not shy away from the dirty, unkempt and gritty reality of the crowded city streets. Many figures are ragged, some appearing aggressive and menacing. By contrast, The Sock Vendor appears civilised and approachable.
Now almost a forgotten figure, Sandby was highly respected by his contemporaries and was later given the title of the “father of English watercolour”. During the 18th century, Ireland, Wales and Scotland were united under the English crown, and Sandby carried out a series of images of towns, ruins, roads, estates and parks throughout the land that were among the first to “picture” or give visual currency to the newly-formed nation state. He was innovative in developing new painting processes, his work an astonishing record of the 18th century countryside, with magnificent houses as well as the gritty reality of life in the city for many of its inhabitants. In painting what he saw, Sandby has left a fascinating record of contemporary life. And he has not shied away from the tough reality of a rapidly developing society.
