Studio: international art (72.1918)

Paul and Thomas Sandby

Old Bridge at Windsor, by Thomas Sandby,
displays his art to the better advantage. And
there can be no doubt that as regards precise
draughtsmanship and the skill to lay even and
finely graduated washes of colour, qualities
which are essential to architectural drawings,
very few artists, except Turner in his early
work, could surpass him.

Thomas Sandby was the first Professor of
Architecture at the Royal Academy, and though
he practised as an architect he did not let his
profession suppress the artist in him. He had
broad and enlightened views about the drawing
of architecture. An instance of this is shown
in his lectures to the students at the Academy,
where he advises them not to trust too much
to the use of rules and compasses, but to
accustom themselves to draw real buildings in
the manner of landscape painters. “ In doing
so they would gain a facility in drawing by hand
which will correct that hardness which is gener-
ally too predominant in the works of those
who never draw but by rules and compasses.”
If all architectural drawings, like those shown
to-day at the Royal Academy, were as good
artistically as those by Thomas Sandby, the

Architectural Room at that institution would
be visited by a larger proportion of the public
and picture lovers than is now the case.

As a landscape painter Paul Sandby was
certainly the greater artist of the two brothers.
His work had a larger range, and was more
pictorial in character. He was not an architect,
and though he made many drawings of archi-
tecture, he started on his artistic career as a
topographer. But soon he became a landscape
painter in the best sense of the word. When
Thomas Sandby was appointed draughtsman
to the Chief Engineer in Scotland, his brother
and he were engaged together in surveying work.
But in addition to this Paul made many sketches
of the romantic scenery and antiquities of
Scotland. It was in doing this that he began
to endow his architectural drawings with effects
of light and atmosphere which add to their
charm. He lived with his brother Thomas for
some time at Windsor, and was patronized by
Sir Joseph Banks, who bought a large number
of his drawings of Windsor Castle and town,
and who took him on tours to Wales. The Hon.
Charles Greville was another helpful patron.
In 1768 he was appointed Chief Drawing Master

"CAREW CASTLE, PEMBROKESHIRE ”

134

lBritish Museum)

BY PAUL SANDBY, R.A.