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Lot Essay
Sandby spent the early part of his career as a draftsman for the Board of Ordinance and was based in Scotland working on a military survey from 1747 to 1751. On returning south he joined his brother Thomas at Windsor and spent ten years there sketching and etching while Thomas carried out architectural and landscape gardening for the Duke of Cumberland. In 1760 both brothers moved to London, playing an important part in the establishment of the Royal Academy. By 1768, when Paul took the position of Chief Drawing Master at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he was at the height of his career.
Sandby was inspired by the continental masters and painted many capriccio views from his imagination influenced by their Italianate landscape. The twisted and knarled tree is a common motif in Sandby's later work and probably relates to the beech trees he observed in Windsor Great Park earlier in his career. From the 1780s, the massive knarled trunks of the beech trees in Windsor became increasingly popular as a picturesque subject matter. J.T. Smith's first exhibit at the academy was 'a portrait of the venerable beech tree which stood within memory at a short distance from Sand-pit gate' and he also recorded that the same tree was painted by Benjamin West (in the Royal Collection see O. Millar The Later Georgian pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 1969, no. 1168). J.H. Pott in his An essay on Landscape, London, 1782, discusses the attraction of the beech tree as did other theorists of the time.
Sandby was inspired by the continental masters and painted many capriccio views from his imagination influenced by their Italianate landscape. The twisted and knarled tree is a common motif in Sandby's later work and probably relates to the beech trees he observed in Windsor Great Park earlier in his career. From the 1780s, the massive knarled trunks of the beech trees in Windsor became increasingly popular as a picturesque subject matter. J.T. Smith's first exhibit at the academy was 'a portrait of the venerable beech tree which stood within memory at a short distance from Sand-pit gate' and he also recorded that the same tree was painted by Benjamin West (in the Royal Collection see O. Millar The Later Georgian pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 1969, no. 1168). J.H. Pott in his An essay on Landscape, London, 1782, discusses the attraction of the beech tree as did other theorists of the time.