The Easel

14th September 2021

How Paul Sandby painted Britain as he saw it

This profile of Sandby, an early Romantic era British artist avoids an obvious question – was he second-rate? Trained as a draftsman, Sandby made his name as a watercolour landscapist. Turner, younger by a just few decades, brought drama and emotion to landscape painting. Sandby brought … accuracy; he showed the facts of a landscape. When art history considers which artists should be deemed great, skill is perhaps necessary but is certainly not sufficient.