SANDBY, Paul (1725-1809), founder of the English school of water-colour painting, was descended from a branch of the Sandbys of Babworth, and was born at Nottingham in 1725. After commencing his artistic studies in London, in 1746 he was appointed by the duke of Cumberland draughtsman to the survey of the Highlands. In 1752 he quitted this post, and retired to Windsor, where he occupied himself with the production of watercolour drawings of scenery and picturesque architecture, which brought him under the notice of Sir Joseph Banks, who gave him his patronage, and subsequently commissioned him to bring out in aquatinta (a method of engraving then peculiar to Sandby) forty-eight plates drawn during a tour in Wales. Sandby displayed considerable power as a caricaturist in his attempt to ridicule the opposition of Hogarth to the plan for creating a public academy for the arts. He was chosen a foundation-member of the Royal Academy in 1768, and the same year was appointed chief drawing-master to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He held this situation till 1799, and during that time he trained many artists who afterwards gained a name in their profession. Sandby will be best remembered, however, by his water-colour paintings. They are topographical in character, and, while they want the richness and brilliancy of modern watercolour, he nevertheless impressed upon them the originality of his mind. In his later pieces, in particular, decided progress is observable in richness and in harmony of tinting, and they also show a measure of poetic feeling, due, in great part, to the influence of Cozens. His etchings, such as the Cries of London and the illustrations to Ramsay’s Gentle Shepherd, and his plates, such as those to Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, are both numerous ...