Windsor Castle: The Round Tower, Royal Court and Devil's Tower from the Black Rod

Acclaimed at the time of his death as the father of British watercolour painting, Sandby was the most distinguished and versatile later-eighteenth-century watercolourist who specialised in topography. Sandby had trained as a surveyor and military draughtsman and his skill in depicting architecture is evident in his impressive series of Windsor Castle drawings of the later 1760s which are characterised by sparkling light, crisp detail and finely observed figures. He worked in transparent watercolour, but also produced paintings such as this in which he made extensive use of the opaque medium of gouache for its greater strength of colour.

Text by Cathy Leahy © National Gallery of Victoria, Australia