Art Knowledge News
Royal Academy of Arts to Open a Bicentenary Exhibition Celebrating Paul Sandby |
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| Written by Christopher Givens |
| Friday, 01 January 2010 02:42 |
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 However, from the midnineteenth century, Sandby’s work slipped into
obscurity. This exhibition aims to redress Sandby’s position in the history of
British art. It will highlight the range and variety of Sandby’s techniques and
subject matter: from his exquisite watercolour depictions of the British
countryside from Surrey to Scotland by way of Wales, to his print series of
street vendors which capture everyday life in eighteenth-century London with
Hogarthian wit.Sandby portrayed scenes throughout Britain, helping to give visual form to the idea of the United Kingdom as a nation state. Through his extensive tours, initially as a military draughtsman and later as a professional artist, Sandby pioneered landscape painting in Scotland and Wales. He sought new sites and portrayed familiar ones with a fresh eye. His art is unrivalled among that of his contemporaries for its remarkable range of rural, urban, modern and historical subjects. His work captures the diverse nature of the landscape of his day and provides an important record of a country experiencing rapid social, economic and political change. Earlier in the eighteenth century, enthusiasm for travel on the Continent had abounded among those making the Grand Tour, but towards the end of the century Sandby witnessed the rise of the ‘picturesque’ tour within the British Isles. As tourists sought variety of scenery, evidence of ancient historical monuments, usually in ruinous condition, and intimations of early industrialisation, they demanded visual representations that not only recorded the actual topographical and architectural detail of specific sites but also conveyed their distinct atmospheres and historical and emotional resonances. Sandby used his mastery of the watercolour technique and his innovative application of aquatint to meet the ever-growing expectations of the increasingly affluent and leisured middle and upper classes.
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