The entrance to the Horseshoe Cloister with the west end of St George's Chapel c. 1770
Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour | 23.9 x 32.2 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 914553
Paul Sandby (1731-1809)
The entrance to the Horseshoe Cloister with the west end of St George's Chapel c. 1770
Paul Sandby (1731-1809)
The entrance to the Horseshoe Cloister with the west end of St George's Chapel c. 1770
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A watercolour drawing of the west end of St George's Chapel and the entrance to the Horseshoe Cloister, from the bottom of the Lower Ward. The Beaufort Chapel projects to the south. At the centre and to the left are several red brick chimney stacks, and the Curfew Tower is visible behind. In the foreground is a row of trees. At the far right, two men are walking towards the chapel, seen from behind: one in a blue coat and one in a purple robe, identifying him as a Military Knight. A woman and child are in the corner. The sheet is circumscribed with a black line and buff wash border, and is mounted on a grey, green and black ink line bordered mount associated with works from the collection of Sir Joseph Banks. Inscribed on the verso in pencil, possibly in the artist's hand, 'View of Part of St. George's Chapel from Henry VIII's Gate (these last four words in a different hand, over 'from Town Gate') with the entrance to the Singing Men's Cloister'. There is an outline tracing of this view in the Staatliche Museen Greiz (E 507). As with many watercolours formerly in the Banks collection, there is a more finished version of the same subject by Sandby in bodycolour (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven B1981.25.2692). Sandby exhibited 'Entrance into the Singing Men's Cloister and the West End of H. M. Chapel of St George's in Windsor Castle' at the Society of Artists in 1765 (no. 232); this is probably the New Haven bodycolour or another view from a slightly different angle formerly with Thomas & Brenda Brod, Fine Paintings and Drawings, London. A watercolour of the same view but slightly closer to St George's Chapel is also in the Royal Collection (RCIN 914554), and was also formerly in the Banks collection. The various chimney stacks and irregular additions to the Horseshoe Cloister, accommodation for the layclerks of the Chapel, were removed during Sir George Gilbert Scott's remodelling of the Lower Ward from 1870. The Chapel has now regained its ogival roof. The two sundials shown on the Beaufort Chapel are still visible today. The line of trees was removed in the nineteenth century.
Provenance
Sir Joseph Banks; Sir William Knatchbull (sale, Christie's 23 May 1876, lot 14); purchased (£4) by Mr Hogarth; purchased from Mr Hogarth [J. Hogarth & Sons], 30 March 1878 (Royal Library, List of books received and their donors, 1870-1878, RCIN 1028940.a, March 1878) '5 Drawings Windsor by Paul Sandby'.
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Medium and techniques
Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour
Measurements
23.9 x 32.2 cm (sheet of paper)
29.2 x 37.6 cm (mount)
Other number(s)
RL 14553