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Creator:
Paul Sandby, 1731–1809
Title:
North West View of Wakefield Lodge in Whittlebury Forest, Northamptonshire
Former Title(s):
View of Wakefield Lodge in Whittlebury Forest, Northamptonshire
Additional Title(s):
North East View of Wakefield Lodge...
Date:
1767
Materials & Techniques:
Watercolor with pen and gray ink and touches of gold paint over graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 16 3/4 x 33 1/4 inches (42.5 x 84.5 cm), Mount: 19 7/8 x 36 inches (50.5 x 91.4 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in gold paint, on mount, lower center: "North West View of WAKEFIELD LODGE in Whittlebury Forest"

Signed and dated in gold paint, lower left: "P. Sandby 1767"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.4648
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
boat | carriage | cattle | cattle | clouds | figures | forest | landscape | men | north | river | sailboat | sky | trees | west | women
Associated Places:
Europe | Northamptonshire | United Kingdom | Whittlebury
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:14275
Export:
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IIIF Manifest:
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Located in Whittlebury Forest, Wakefield Lodge was an imposing hunting lodge designed by William Kent for the 2nd Duke of Grafton. Its completion was overseen by the 3rd Duke of Grafton (short-lived prime minister from 14 October 1768 to 28 January 1770), who continuously increased the size of the estate. Having been trained as a topographer, Sandby felt particularly at ease with estate portraiture. He chose to depict Wakefield lodge from a distance rather than at close range, thereby displaying the property in its wider setting. As is often the case in Sandby's oeuvre, the artist peppered his composition with references to estate life. The grazing horses remind the viewer that the majestic 250-acre park was host to the Wakefield Lawn Races, while the wary herd of stags is evocative of the Grafton Hunt. Sandby's artistic aspirations never prevented him from adding a touch of lightness: one cannot help noticing a raggedy couple surreptitiously bundling wood and hiding behind a tree as a phaeton approaches, making this an exquisite scene of rustic burlesque. Although not as frequently depicted by Sandby as Windsor views, Wakefield Lodge was the subject of some repetitions as well. The present work was one of two Wakefields exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1767. Sandby also produced two watercolors from different viewpoints that were later engraved by M..A..Rooker for A Collection of Landscapes, published in London in 1777. Other versions of the lodge were made the next year for the Copperplate Magazine, to which Sandby contributed many designs. These endeavors are telling of the artist's condition: by hanging his work on the walls of the Society of Artists, Sandby most likely hoped to attract private and wealthy patrons wishing to have their own estates depicted in a similar fashion; by providing designs to publishers, he could make a decent living while courting a larger public.

Stéphane Roy

Baskett, John, Jules David Prown, Duncan Robinson, Brian Allen, and William Reese. Paul Mellon's Legacy: A Passion for British Art. New Haven : Yale Center for British Art , 2007, cat. no. 33


While the Buck brothers created their views of British antiquaries and cities for an antiquarian and civic minded audience, and Paul Sandby's views of Windsor had broad general appeal for Englishmen, topography also had its more personal aspect. Portraits of country houses and esates, commission by their owners, were a staple of topographical artists of the eighteenth-century.
Cat. 136 is one of two drawings that Paul Sandby exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1767 of Wakefield Lodge, a hunting lodge built for the Duke of Gafton by William Kent (see cat. 113). The sweeping horizontal format emphasizes the extent of the property, while Sandby exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1767 of Wakefield Lodge, a hunting lodge built for the Duke of Gafton by William Kent (see cat. 113). The sweeping horizontal format emphasizes the extent of the property, while Sandby offsets the broad expanses of open ground with figures, horses, and deer strung out across the foreground. As so often with Sandby's figures (the foppish couple on the terrace of Windsor Castle whose lapdog is being attacked by a Raven is an example) a small drama or comedy is being played out - here a pair of rustics are about to be discovered purloining firewood.

Scott Wilcox

Wilcox, Forrester, O'Neil, Sloan. The Line of Beauty: British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2001. pg. 160 cat. no. 136

Picturing Britain - Paul Sandby (1731-1809) - A Bicentenary Exhibition (Royal Academy of Arts, 2010-03-13 - 2010-06-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Picturing Britain - Paul Sandby (1731-1809) - A Bicentenary Exhibition (National Gallery of Scotland, 2009-11-07 - 2010-02-07) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Picturing Britain - Paul Sandby (1731-1809) - A Bicentenary Exhibition (Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery, 2009-07-25 - 2009-10-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Paul Mellon's Legacy : A Passion for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Papermaking and The Art of Watercolor in Eighteenth-Century Britain: Paul Sandby's "View of…Mr. Whatman's Turkey Mill" (Yale Center for British Art, 2006-02-22 - 2006-06-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

The Line of Beauty : British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-05-19 - 2001-08-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

The Art of Paul Sandby (Yale Center for British Art, 1985-04-10 - 1985-06-23) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Country Houses in Great Britain - Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 1979-10-10 - 1980-01-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

English Landscape (Paul Mellon Collection) 1630-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-07-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 256, no. 33, pl. 33, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

British Art at Yale, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, p. 271, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Country houses in Great Britain., Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1979, pp. 74-75, no. 61, N6764 Y34 1979 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Stephen Daniels, Paul Sandby, picturing Britain , Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2009, pp. 206-7, no. 87, NJ18 Sa56 P3 2009 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Lady Lever Art Gallery, British watercolours and drawings : Lord Leverhulme's collection in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, , Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 2010, p.169, N1455 A85 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Angeliki Lymberopoulou, Art & visual culture, a reader , Tate Publishing, London, 2012, pp. 177, 180-82, N5300 .A683 2012 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 2, no. 33, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Graham Reynolds, English Landscape 1630-1850, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, p. 271, N1 A54 105:2 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Society of Artists of Great Britain, A catalogue of the pictures, sculptures, designs in architecture, models, drawings, prints, etc. : exhibited at the great room in Spring Garden, Charing Cross, April the twenty-second, 1767 / by the Society of Artists of Great Britain incorporated by his, William Bunce, London, UK, 1767, p. 21, no. 272, N5055 S6 C3 (RARE BOOKS, YCBA) Also Available online (18th Century Collection Online - Gale) [ORBIS]

David H. Solkin, Art in Britain 1660-1815, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2015, pp. 215-16, 259, fig. 218, N6766 S65 2015 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

The Art of Paul Sandby, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 1985, pp. 58-9, no. 77, NJ18 Sa56 R62 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Scott Wilcox, Line of beauty : British drawings and watercolors of the eighteenth century, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, pp. 160-1, no. 136, NC228 W53 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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