(b Nottingham, Jan 1731; d London, 7 Nov 1809). Painter, draughtsman, printmaker and drawing-master, brother of (1) Thomas Sandby. He received his early training from his older brother and in March 1747 followed him as a military draughtsman employed by the Board of Ordnance at the Tower of London. The same year he was appointed official draughtsman to the Military Survey in Scotland, making maps of the Highlands as part of a government campaign to subdue and control the area following the 1745 Jacobite rebellion. He also produced panoramic landscapes in watercolour and pen-and-ink, influenced by 17th-century Dutch art, such as his South Prospect of Leith (1749; Oxford, Ashmolean), and figure studies that reflect a sharp eye for social behaviour. While in Scotland and also after his return to London c. 1752 (lodging with his brother in Pulteney Street, Soho), he produced several landscape etchings including a Forest Landscape (c. 1752), in which French Rococo and 17th-century Dutch elements intermingle. In 1753-4 he etched eight plates that satirized the work of William Hogarth, perhaps in revenge for Hogarth's attack on William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, employer of both Sandby brothers. Paul's etchings in 1760 of Twelve London Cries display witty observations of urban life that derive from Hogarth, couched in the graceful, sinuous style of French Rococo printmakers such as Hubert-Fran?ois Gravelot.
Part of the Sandby family
See the Abbreviations for further details.
