Paul Sandby, Sir Watkin and the Landscape of North Wales

In August 1771 the wealthy Welsh landowner, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, and the talented artist, Paul Sandby, rode through the gates of Wynnstay Park at Newbridge on the start of a two-week long tour.

Together they would explore what an eighteenth century English commentator, had derided as 'the fag end of creation, the very rubbish of Noah's Flood' or as we know it today – the glorious scenery of North Wales.

Sandby was the subject of many portraits by his contemporaries including Sir William Beechey and William Parry.
Paul Sandby, Francis Cotes, oil, 1761. © Tate Britain

Five years later, Paul Sandby published XII Views in North Wales. This series of aquatints revealed that North Wales had the most picturesque, the most sublime and the most romantic scenery in Britain. The wide availability of Sandby's aquatints, unlike earlier paintings of Welsh landscapes, changed opinions about Wales for good. Artists were impressed and a new style of landscape painting was born. Tourists soon followed in the wake of the more adventurous aristocrats. They still come today.

In this exhibition you can follow Sir Watkin and Paul Sandby on their adventure in North Wales on film and through the works of art on display. The film reveals the places that inspired Sandby and speculates how his experiences in Wales transformed what he drew and how he painted. In the gallery you can see a selection of original works by Paul Sandby, on loan from Britain's major galleries, and brought together for the first time in the land that inspired them.

Acknowledgements

Wrexham Heritage Service would like to acknowledge the following for their assistance: the National Portrait Gallery, London; Tate Britain, London; Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museums Wales, Cardiff; Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru - the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth; the Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool; the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Bolton Museum & Art Gallery; Leeds Museums & Galleries; Southampton City Art Gallery; and the Estate of Mr & Mrs Paul Mellon.

Exhibition curator: Paul Hernon.

Paul Sandby, Sir Watkin and the Landscape of Wales

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