: Colonial Williamsburg's De-Witt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum
will display a selection of prints by Paul Sandby (1723-1809),
considered one of the most influential English landscape artists
working during the latter half of the Eighteenth Century.
"Subtlety in Sepia: Prints by Paul Sandby" will be on display
from January 31 through December 2006.
Highlights of the exhibition will include four views by Sandby
and Scottish painter Archibald Robertson (1765-1835) depicting
scenes in and near Naples, Italy. These works allowed Sandby and
Robertson to experiment with sepia tones and the aquatint process
to recreate the light qualities of southern Italy. Also on
display will be a circa 1763 black-and-white mezzotint engraving
of Sandby by English portrait artist Edward Fisher.
Sandby is best known for his work in watercolor and gouache;
however, he also was the first professional artist to use the
aquatint technique of printmaking. He described the process in an
article titled, "A Mode of Imitating Drawing on Copper Plates
Discovered by P. Sandby in the Year 1775." Reminiscent of a
watercolor wash, the effect was used primarily to tone
backgrounds, the main design having been etched previously into
the plate.
Sandby received training as a draftsman at the Board of Ordnance
Drawing Room, located in the Tower of London, though he learned
to paint from his brother, Thomas (1723-1798), architect,
draftsman and deputy ranger to William Augustus, Duke of
Cumberland. In 1753, he joined his brother at Windsor Park and
traveled throughout the English countryside and Wales painting
scenes of country houses and the local topography.
Recognized for his skill at watercolor painting, he secured the
patronage of the royal family and other nobility as well as the
acknowledgment of his contemporaries. English landscape painter
Thomas Gainsborough said of him in 1762, "With respect to real
views from Nature in this County...Paul Sandby is the only man of
Genius...who has employ'd his Pencil that way."
Sandby was a founding member of the Society of Artists in England
and the Royal Academy. In 1768, he was appointed chief drawing
master at the prestigious Woolwich Academy, a royal military
academy founded in 1741.
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's DeWitt Wallace
Decorative Arts Museum is on Francis Street near Merchants
Square. For information, 757-220-7724.
