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Lot Essay
Thanks to the patronage of the Duke of Cumberland, Paul Sandby's elder brother Thomas lived and worked at Windsor from 1750 onwards. Paul visited Windsor frequently after he settled in London in 1753, exhibiting Windsor subjects at the Society of Artists in 1765-8 and at the Royal Academy, of which he was a founder member, in 1774-5, 1795, 1802, 1806 and 1808.
This watercolour of Windsor Castle, seen across the Thames from Brocklehurst Field or the Brocas, is a version of one of the series of large watercolours painted by Sandby for the Duke of Montagu, Controller and Governor of Windsor Castle from 1752 until his death in 1790, and now in the possession of the Duke of Buccleuch at Drumlanrig. That work, painted in the 1760s, measures 17 x 33¼ in. but does not extend so far to the right; it has the same sailing barge and the same two boys fishing on the left. Another version, 12 x 25¼ in., belongs to the Earl of Stair, Oxenfoord Castle; this shows the sail on the barge furled and one man fishing on the right. A third version is in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle: the view is taken from slightly further upstream, as in the aquatint of 1776, measures 8½ x 17¼ in. and shows a soldier with a girl on the left, with cows behind and horses on the right (A.P. Oppé, The Drawings of Paul and Thomas Sandby in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, Oxford and London, 1947, p. 32, no. 80). A similar view by Thomas Sandby, 'from the Goswells drawn in a Camera [Obscura]', is also at Windsor (Oppé, op.cit., p. 31, no. 78, illustrated, and J. Roberts, Views of Windsor, Watercolours by Thomas and Paul Sandby, London, 1995, p. 25, fig. 54).
This watercolour of Windsor Castle, seen across the Thames from Brocklehurst Field or the Brocas, is a version of one of the series of large watercolours painted by Sandby for the Duke of Montagu, Controller and Governor of Windsor Castle from 1752 until his death in 1790, and now in the possession of the Duke of Buccleuch at Drumlanrig. That work, painted in the 1760s, measures 17 x 33¼ in. but does not extend so far to the right; it has the same sailing barge and the same two boys fishing on the left. Another version, 12 x 25¼ in., belongs to the Earl of Stair, Oxenfoord Castle; this shows the sail on the barge furled and one man fishing on the right. A third version is in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle: the view is taken from slightly further upstream, as in the aquatint of 1776, measures 8½ x 17¼ in. and shows a soldier with a girl on the left, with cows behind and horses on the right (A.P. Oppé, The Drawings of Paul and Thomas Sandby in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, Oxford and London, 1947, p. 32, no. 80). A similar view by Thomas Sandby, 'from the Goswells drawn in a Camera [Obscura]', is also at Windsor (Oppé, op.cit., p. 31, no. 78, illustrated, and J. Roberts, Views of Windsor, Watercolours by Thomas and Paul Sandby, London, 1995, p. 25, fig. 54).