The North Terrace of Windsor Castle, looking west c. 1790 - c. 1800
Bodycolour | 62.3 x 86.4 cm (sight) | RCIN 451579
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A bodycolour drawing of the North Terrace, Windsor Castle, looking west towards Queen Elizabeth's Gallery, Winchester Tower, and the Canon's houses. Groups of figures, including soldiers, a boy with a dog and a raven are walking on the terrace. A figure is illuminated in an upper window, and smoke is rising from the Winchester Tower chimneys. In the distance is the church of St Andrew's, Clewer and the Thames Valley towards the hills beyond Maidenhead. Drawing was formerly on a canvas, now removed.
Sandby made many watercolours, drawings and bodycolours of the North Terrace, looking both east and west, from the 1760s until his death. This particular version is a late iteration based on the costumes of the figures. Other versions in the Royal Collection are RCINs 453778 (formerly Joseph Banks collection (1876 sale, lot 12), collections of Colonel Hibbert, the Hon. Sir Richard Molyneux and HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother), 914524, 914525, 914527 and a pencil drawing is 914523. The figures are very similar to those in 914527. An outline etching of the same view was included in a series of etchings published in 1777 (for example, British Museum 1904,0819.587). Another version of the same view appeared at Sotheby's, London, 9 July 2011, lot 318. The appearance of the terrace, described in contemporary guidebooks as 'the noblest walk in Europe' (Joseph Pote, Les Delices de Windsore, 1763), has changed little since the eighteenth century.
The drawing was previously on a stretcher and hung in the Lord Chamberlain's Department at Buckingham Palace (no. 809, inventory of Pictures). In 1870 it was removed from the stretcher and mounted in the Royal Library at Windsor.
Provenance
Paul Sandby estate sale, 2-4 May 1811, third day, lot 70, 'A large highly finished view of Windsor Castle from the North Terrace, looking West, painted in body colour on canvas, framed and glazed'; bought 'Sheppherd' for George IV, when Prince of Wales, £31 10s 0d.
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Creator(s)
Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Bodycolour
Measurements
62.3 x 86.4 cm (sight)
90.3 x 114.6 cm (frame, external)
Other number(s)
RL 14526