Paul Sandby (1731-1809)
View near the Serpentine River in Hyde Park during the Encampment 1780
Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour | 27.5 x 44.7 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 914681
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A pencil, pen and watercolour drawing of the Serpentine in Hyde Park, with tents in the distance and figures in the foreground. Several carts with beer barrels, a man kicking a horse at the centre, a festive party on the left. Houses, a church and wooded hills in the distance. On a wash-line bordered mount inscribed in pencil: View near the Serpentine River in Hyde Park during the Encampment 1780', and with the auctioneer's numbers 2-78/1 connecting the drawing to the Paul Sandby estate sale, 3 May 1811, lot 78.
From 1774, Paul Sandby lived opposite Hyde Park at 4 St George's Row, Bayswater. He made many drawings of the park, including a large number of drawings of the encampments set up in the park during the Gordon Riots in 1780. Over six days in June 1780, protests took place against the limited concessions of the first Catholic Relief Act, and to quell further riots, troops were stationed in St James's Park, the gardens of Montagu House, and Hyde Park, remaining in situ for several months. Despite their military function, the encampments soon became places of fashionable parade and entertainment: Lord Harcourt described that in St James's Park as 'so extremely pretty that you would be charmed with the sight of it'. Sandby's drawings often capture the sociable elements of the camps, even wryly including drunk or amorous soldiers 'guarding' Hyde Park. He sent several drawings to be exhibited at the Royal Academy the following year, as well as making marketable aquatints of the subjects.
The figure of the man kicking a horse also appears in RCIN 914539, and is taken from a drawing in an album at the British Museum (1904,0819.313 (72). Other drawings of the camps in the Royal Collection are RCINs 451581-451586, 451590, 914678-914681 and 935206, with other examples elsewhere, including at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (B1981.25.2690) and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (1953P80). See also John Bonehill and Stephen Daniels (eds) Paul Sandby: Picturing Britain, exh cat, Nottingham Castle Museum etc., 2009, pp. 144-46.Provenance
Paul Sandby estate sale, 2-4 May 1811, second day, lot 78; bought 'Shepperd' for George IV when Prince of Wales, £4 4s. -
Creator(s)
Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour
Measurements
27.5 x 44.7 cm (sheet of paper)
Other number(s)
RL 14681