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440 
or could have better known their feel- 
ings and opinions, as they increased iu 
taste and. intelligence, with the vast ex- 
ertions of the artists to reach their pre- 
sent perfection. 
Tt should be observed that for many 
years after Mr, Sandby commenced Jand- 
scape-drawing, no colours were in general 
wse except such as were peculiarly adapted 
for the staining of maps and plans; and 
indeed it was himself who first set Mid- 
dleton the colour-maker fo prepare them 
in somewhat like their present state, 
and which are now brought to so great 
perfection by Reeves, Newman, and 
others. 
In viewing the works of Mr. Sandby 
it is hardly possible to trace any other 
than nature for his guide: he looked 
alone to her, and his style appears 
to have been compleatly formed in 
the three places where he had_ chiefly 
studied, Scotland, Wales, and Windsor. 
The Forest and Park of Windsor seem 
to have preponderated, and from the 
.studies made in those places that it is 
evident it early appeared to him, that the 
becoming a draughtsman was no easy 
matter of attainment; and whatever the 
force of genius may be, without the 
most accurate and faithful minuteness, it 
is impossible to arrive at real excellence; 
and accordingly his studies were prose- 
cuted with unremitting ardour. 
In his careful sketches and highly 
finished drawings, great precision is to be 
found in the outline, The foliage and ra- 
. mifications of the trees, the management 
of the perspective, in foreshortening the 
limbs as they advance or recede together 
with the fine feeling and exquisite taste 
with which the extremities are touched, 
As surprising; his pencil-sketches from 
Nature have seldom been seen but by his 
particular friends, by whom it has been 
admitted, that those of about forty years 
back, have not been exceeded by any 
one; and this all will allow to be no small 
admission, when it is considered who are 
now living. 
Outline was Mr. Sandby’s peculiar fort ; 
he drew with amazing facility. and the 
greatest correctness,whatever might be the 
subjéct, or however complicated its-parts. 
He sat down without the slightest embur- 
yessment, and drew buildings, figures, 
eattle, or landscape, with equal ease, and 
free from all trifling. . His Views of 
Windsor Castle shew a thorough know- 
_ ledge of perspective. 
When the works of this master are 
Memoirs of the lute Paul Sandby, esq. 
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[June a | 
considered, it should be remembered, 
that all his endeavours were to give to 
his drawings a similar appearance to that 
seen it a camera-obscura, and when 
looked at with this impression, their 
beauty becomes very conspicuous; the 
truth in the reflected lights, the clearness 
in the shadows, the aérial tint and keep- 
ing in the distances, and skies, will be 
found to have been generally got up to 
reach the artist’s tention. As be never 
appears to have introduced, or depended 
at all upon, violent contrast. for effect, 
His drawings willever be esteemed by the 
judicious, for their portrait-like resem- 
blance to nature, and as_ bearing the 
minutest inspection. Residing in the 
country where Mr. Sandby studied, and 
having several Views in the neighbour- 
hood drawn by him, I have.enjoyed over 
and over again, the pleasure which my 
ride, or walk, had afforded me, upon 
coming home and seeing in my room so 
close a copy of every thing I wished to 
recollect in scenes | had just been con- 
templating. There is among them a 
drawing of the cottage in which 1 live, 
with many figures, and animals about it; 
and in which my own and other infant 
children, instantly recognize, and call by 
name all the persons, aud eyen the dogs 
and cattle. . 
Whoever has seen the exquisite draw- 
ings of Wilson, will také a lesson from 
that great man’s method (as well as from 
the similar one of Mr. Sandby) in the 
value of adhering tu fact in their imita- 
tion of nature; and yet it is to be la- 
mented, that there are some’ (not pro- 
fessional men though, thank God!) who, 
while they are presumptuously advancing 
strong claiins to connoisseurship, do 
great harm, by affecting to doubt its im- 
portance, and preter an undefined wild 
ramble-tumble, (on any thing else you 
please) of penciling, to a just represen- 
tation; which work they call bold, and 
sprited sketching; and aptly is it named, 
for bold must be the doers, bolder the 
admirers. : 
Not long before Mr. Sandby’s death, 
I repeated to him the remarks of a gen- 
tleman who had just. acquired a taste by 
commission, ‘ Aye, (said he) these gen- 
tlemen, when they attempt to fly their 
kites, little suspéct how soon you) dise 
cover the length of the string.” 
Few people hada more varied mode 
of execution, or possessed more knowledge 
respecting his art, than Mr. Sandby ; 
sume of his best works, 1 have always 
fue _ thought 
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