A Peasant Girl gathering Faggots and Figures seated by the Bole of an ancient gnarled Beech Tree

This gouache depicts the same tree as is shown in lot 113, q.v. for the dating of these two watercolours. The figure of a woman on the left, bending over and fastening a bundle of sticks, had already been used by Sandby in his watercolour Northwest View of Wakefield Lodge (signed and dated 1767 16¾ x 33½in.) now in the Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven (illustrated in B. Robertson, 'The Art of Paul Sandby', Exhibition Catalogue, Yale Centre, 1985, no.77).