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Lot Essay
Edwin was the son of Martin Sandys and Mary Trumbull, and brother of Mary, Marchioness of Downshire. Painted whilst Edwin was at Christ Church, Oxford, this portrait was completed in the last months of his short life. The cypress trees, associated variously with mourning, death and immortality since Roman times, suggest that the portrait may have been completed posthumously.
James Roberts was a pupil of the Royal Academy Schools and exhibited there from 1773-99. He was later a drawing teacher in Oxford between 1784 and 1794, where he appears to have painted several pupils and members of staff. Another portrait of a contemporary of Edwin at Oxford by Roberts is in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (inv. no. NPG.96.28). It shows the scientist and founder of the Smithsonian, James Smithson, as a student at Pembroke College, wearing his university robes.
James Roberts was a pupil of the Royal Academy Schools and exhibited there from 1773-99. He was later a drawing teacher in Oxford between 1784 and 1794, where he appears to have painted several pupils and members of staff. Another portrait of a contemporary of Edwin at Oxford by Roberts is in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (inv. no. NPG.96.28). It shows the scientist and founder of the Smithsonian, James Smithson, as a student at Pembroke College, wearing his university robes.