Ross Castle, Killarney, Ireland

Paul Sandby was an inveterate recorder of Britain's landscapes and great buildings, particularly castles, inspired by his time as a military draughtsman. Here he captures both the splendour and the strategic location of the castle on the banks of the lake, whilst the figures in the foreground add a sense of bucolic calm, creating the kind of topographically accurate yet charmingly romantic view for which he is best known. There is a larger version of the subject taken from the same viewpoint but with different figures in the foreground, City of Hamilton Art Gallery, Australia. An engraving of the same view, with a third and different set of figures, was included in John Boydell's A Collection of One Hundred and Fifty Select Views in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, 1783.