Paul Sandby (1731-1809)
The North Terrace, looking west c. 1790
Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour | 31.1 x 43.0 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 914524
-
A watercolour drawing of the North Terrace, Windsor Castle, looking west towards Queen Elizabeth's Gallery, Winchester Tower, and the Canon's houses. Groups of figures and a dog are walking on the terrace. A woman and two children are seated on the low wall to the right. In the distance is the church of St Andrew's, Clewer and the Thames Valley towards the hills beyond Maidenhead. The sheet is mounted on a yellow and grey wash line bordered mount of a type associated with works at the Paul Sandby estate sale in 1811. The same view, with different figures, appears in a gouache from the Joseph Banks collection (1876 sale, lot 12), formerly in the collections of Colonel Hibbert, the Hon. Sir Richard Molyneux and HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. An outline etching of the same view was included in a series of etchings published in 1777 (for example, British Museum 1904,0819.587). A pencil drawing of the same subject is in the Royal Collection (RCIN 914523). Another version of the same view appeared at Sotheby's, London, 9 July 2011, lot 318. Other watercolours of the same subject in the Royal Collection are RCINs 914525 and 914527. Sandby made many watercolours, drawings and bodycolours of the North Terrace, looking both east and west, from the 1760s until his death. 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.
Provenance
Possibly Paul Sandby estate sale (Christie's, 2 May 1811); Royal Collection by 1910
-
Creator(s)
-
Medium and techniques
Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour
Measurements
31.1 x 43.0 cm (sheet of paper)
40.2 x 52.0 cm (mount)
Other number(s)
RL 14524