Roche Abbey, Yorkshire
Roche Abbey, Yorkshire
Roche Abbey, YorkshireWatercolour and bodycolour38.1 by 48 cm., 15 by 18 ¾ in. Provenance:With Bill Thomson, his sale, Sotheby's, 6th July 2016, lot 295;Private Collection, UKThe ruins of Roche Abbey sit in a narrow valley 14 miles east of Sheffield. Originally a monastery of the Cistercian order it was founded in 1147. Inevitably the abbey was suppressed by Henry VIII in 1538 and the stone pillaged to be used elsewhere. Thomas Lumley, 3rd Earl of Scarborough (c.1691-1752) inherited the land and his son the 4th Earl (1725-1782) employed the famous landscape designer Lancelot `Capability' Brown to transform the landscape and he added a lake, waterfall and banqueting lodge. Much of Brown's enhancements were removed in the nineteenth century. It is now looked after by English Heritage. Sandby exhibited three views of Roche Abbey in the 1760s - at the Society of Artists in 1761 and 1762 and at the inaugural exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1769. A large watercolour of Roche Abbey dating from the 1770s is in the collection of the Royal Academy (see John Bonehill and Stephen Daniels (ed.), Paul Sandby - Picturing Britain, exhibition catalogue, 2009, no.74, pp.184-5, ill.).){kind=link}
Paul Sandby (1725-1809)
Roche Abbey, Yorkshire
Watercolour and bodycolour
38.1 by 48 cm., 15 by 18 ¾ in.
Provenance:
With Bill Thomson, his sale, Sotheby's, 6th July 2016, lot 295;
Private Collection, UK
The ruins of Roche Abbey sit in a narrow valley 14 miles east of Sheffield. Originally a monastery of the Cistercian order it was founded in 1147. Inevitably the abbey was suppressed by Henry VIII in 1538 and the stone pillaged to be used elsewhere. Thomas Lumley, 3rd Earl of Scarborough (c.1691-1752) inherited the land and his son the 4th Earl (1725-1782) employed the famous landscape designer Lancelot `Capability' Brown to transform the landscape and he added a lake, waterfall and banqueting lodge. Much of Brown's enhancements were removed in the nineteenth century. It is now looked after by English Heritage.
Sandby exhibited three views of Roche Abbey in the 1760s - at the Society of Artists in 1761 and 1762 and at the inaugural exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1769. A large watercolour of Roche Abbey dating from the 1770s is in the collection of the Royal Academy (see John Bonehill and Stephen Daniels (ed.), Paul Sandby - Picturing Britain, exhibition catalogue, 2009, no.74, pp.184-5, ill.).