Thomas Sandby

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Sir William Beechey

Thomas Sandby

RA (1721 – 25 June 1798) was an English draughtsman, watercolour artist, architect and teacher. In 1743 he was appointed private secretary to the Duke of Cumberland
, who later appointed him Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great Park, where he was responsible for considerable landscaping work.

Along with his younger brother

Royal Academy in 1768, and was its first professor of architecture.[1] His most notable architectural work was the Freemason's Hall
in London (now demolished).

Life and work

M A Rooker
after a drawing by Sandby)
Luttrell's Tower, Calshot – designed by Thomas Sandby for T. S. Luttrell (c.1738–1803)

Early years

Sandby was born in Nottingham, the son of Thomas Sandby, a textile worker,[2] and was self-taught as a draughtsman and architect. Paul Sandby was his brother.

According to the autobiography of the architect James Gandon, Thomas and his brother Paul ran a drawing academy in Nottingham before they went to London in 1741, to take up employment in the military drawing department at the Tower of London (a post procured for them by John Plumptre, MP for Nottingham).[3] Another source says that Thomas initially went to London for the purpose of having one of his pictures – a view of Nottingham – engraved.[4]

Employment by the Duke of Cumberland

In 1743 Sandby was appointed private secretary and draughtsman to

Young Pretender
, landed and was the first person to convey intelligence of the event to the government in 1745.

Sandby accompanied Cumberland in his expeditions against the rebels, and made a sketch of the

St. James's Park to commemorate the victories. In this year the Duke was appointed ranger of Windsor Great Park, and selected Sandby to be deputy ranger. Sandby again accompanied the duke to the Netherlands during the War of the Austrian Succession, and probably remained there till the conclusion of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
in October 1748. He drew four views of the camps in the Low Countries, covering extensive tracts of country, and another inscribed 'Abbaye près de Sarlouis'.

Sandby continued to draw a salary from the Board of Ordnance,

George III, who took great interest in the undertaking, honoured Sandby with his confidence and personal friendship, and on the death of Cumberland in 1765, the king's brother, Henry Frederick
(also Duke of Cumberland, and ranger of the park), retained Sandby as deputy.

Artist and professor of architecture

Grand Hall, Freemason's Hall, London (Designed by Thomas Sandby and built in 1776)

Although devoted to his work at

Royal Academy. Both he and his brother Paul were among the 28 original members of the Royal Academy who were nominated by George III in 1768. He was elected Academy's first professor of architecture, delivering the first of a series of six lectures in that capacity on 8 October 1770. He continued these lectures with alterations and additions annually till his death. They were never published, but the manuscripts were held in the library of the Royal Institute of British Architects
. The illustrations were sold with his other drawings after his death.

Architect

St. Leonard's Hill, Clewer (extended by Sandby in the late 1760s)

In February 1769 Sandby entered a competition to design the Royal Exchange at Dublin, winning third prize of £40. Perhaps his most notable architectural commission was the design of the (first) Freemason's Hall at Great Queen Street in central London, linking two houses purchased by the United Grand Lodge of England The building was opened with great ceremony on 23 May 1776, when the title of 'Grand Architect' was conferred on him by the Freemasons.[7] The Hall was extended in the 1820s by Sir John Soane, but was demolished in 1930 after suffering irreparable structural damage in a fire in 1883.

Sandby designed a carved oak altar-screen for

Duchess of Gloucester, and one for a Colonel Deacon, later known as "Holly Grove". Designs exist for many others of his architectural works which cannot now be identified. In 1777 he was appointed, jointly with James Adam
, architect of his majesty's works, and in 1780 master-carpenter of his majesty's works in England.

Family

Sandby was twice married. The name of his first wife is stated to have been Schultz. He married his second wife, Elizabeth Venables (1733–82), on 26 April 1753. She had a dowry of £2,000, and bore him ten children, six of whom (five daughters and one son) survived him. In his will, and in some simple verses addressed to his daughters after their mother's death, he named only four daughters, Harriott, Charlotte, Maria, and Ann, omitting his eldest girl, Elizabeth, who was twice married, and is said to have died in about 1809.[9] His daughter Harriott married (1786) Thomas Paul, the second son of his brother Paul, and kept house for her father after her mother's death. Eight of her thirteen children were born at the deputy ranger's lodge.

Death

Sandby died at the deputy ranger's lodge in Windsor Park on Monday, 25 June 1798, and was buried in the churchyard of Old Windsor.

Legacy

Though he was self-educated as an architect, and left few buildings by which his capacity can be tested, the Freemasons' Hall showed no ordinary taste, while of his skill as an engineer and landscape-gardener Windsor Great Park and Virginia Water are a permanent record. He was an excellent and versatile draughtsman, and so skilful in the use of watercolour that his name deserves to be associated with that of his brother Paul in the history of that branch of art.

References

  1. ^ Lambirth, Andrew (24 April 2010). "Arboreal glory". The Spectator. 312 (9478): 41.
  2. ^ Thomas Sandby Snr. was described in Thomas Bailey's History of the County of Nottingham as 'of Babworth in this county' but appears to have taken up his residence at Nottingham early in the 18th century. The Sandbys of Babworth are said to have been a branch of the family of Saundeby or De Saundeby of Saundby in Lincolnshire (see Robert Thoroton's "History of Nottinghamshire").
  3. ^ James Gandon. The life of James Gandon, Esq (Hodges and Smith, 1846).
  4. ^
    Anthony Pasquin. Memoirs of the Royal Academicians
    (H.D. Symonds, P. M'Queen, and T. Bellamy, 1796).
  5. ^ Michael Charlesworth, "Thomas Sandby climbs the Hoober Stand", Art History 19, 2, (June 1996)
  6. ^ G. M. Hughes History of Windsor Forest (1890).
  7. ^ Augustus Pugin & John Britton. Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London (J. Weale, 1838).
  8. ^ St. Leonard's Hill, Windsor Archived 5 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ William Sandby. "Thomas and Paul Sandby", pp. 176–80.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Sandby, Thomas". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Further reading

  • A. P. Oppae. The Drawings of Paul and Thomas Sandby in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle (Phaidon Press, 1947).
  • Luke Herrmann. Paul and Thomas Sandby (Batsford, 1986).

External links

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