Paul Sandby, R.A. (Nottingham 1731-1809 London), The North Terrace of Windsor Castle, looking east at sunrise

Paul Sandby, R.A. (Nottingham 1731-1809 London)
The North Terrace of Windsor Castle, looking east at sunrise
pencil, watercolour, and bodycolour heightened with gum arabic
18 x 25 in. (45.7 x 63.5 cm.)

Pre-Lot Text
Property from a Private Collection
Two views of the North Terrace of Windsor Castle: Looking east at sunrise; and Looking west at sunset
The North Terrace at Windsor Castle was the most popular of Paul Sandby's subjects: versions of these two views exist in oil, bodycolour, watercolour, pencil and aquatint, ranging in date from an exhibit at the Society of Artists in 1766 by way of the aquatints of 1776 to signed and dated bodycolours of 1800 and 1803.
The views from the North Terrace looking east and west were often paired, as at the Royal Academy in 1774 and with the aquatints of 1776 (illustrated Dorment, loc.cit., figs. 100-1 and 100-2); there is a pair of circa 1765-70 in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (illustrated Roberts, op.cit., pls. 17.2 and 17.3), while the pair in the Buccleuch Collection, Drumlanrig Castle provide another example and are possibly those exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1774. The North Terrace was also depicted in a set of three works, showing Morning, Afternoon and Sunset, of which Sunset is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (P.7-1945).
The North Terrace was originally laid out under King Henry VIII in 1533-5 and repaired and enlarged under Queen Elizabeth I and King Charles I. By the 18th Century, it extended 1,870 feet and was open to the public, being particularly popular during the years 1776 to 1789 when George III used Windsor as his summer residence. During Sir Jeffry Wyatville's remodelling of the Castle in the 1820s the round-topped turret of the Queen Elizabeth Gallery shown in the present watercolour was 'medievalised'. In the distance is the Winchester Tower, and a crenellated turret flanks one of the two archways on the extreme left.