Paul Sandby

Paul Sandby (1731 - 9 November 1809) was an English map-maker turned landscape painter in watercolours, who, along with his older brother Thomas, became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Born in Nottingham, Sandby joined the topographical drawing room of the Board of Ordnance at the Tower of London in the early 1740s and in 1747 was tasked as chief draughtsman with mapping the remote Scottish Highlands - a "compleat and accurate survey of Scotland". While undertaking this commission, which included preparing designs for new bridges and fortifications, he began producing watercolour landscapes documenting the changes in Scotland after the 1745 rebellion, and sketches of Scottish events such as the hanging in Edinburgh of soldier-turned-forger John Young in 1751. News of his talent soon spread.