Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

On 2 June 1780, Lord George Gordon presented a petition of some 44,000 names of Londoners, demanding the repeal of the Catholic Relief Act, to parliament. A crowd of c.60,000 people gathered in Southwark and marched to Westminster, where they assembled at Palace Yard. In the following days the protestors grew violent. King George III called out the troops, who remained in encampments, set up in St James’s Park and Hyde Park until the rioting ceased in August that year. Watercolourist Paul Sandby painted a record of the army's movements and their life within the encampments. He exhibited six of these views at the Royal Academy in 1781 and also published sets of aquatints of his watercolours.

Paul Sandby, painter, printmaker and drawing master, was born in Nottingham. He was taught by his elder brother, architect and draughtsman Thomas Sandby, and followed Thomas in working at the Board of Ordnance. In 1747, he was made official draughtsman to the military survey of the Scottish Highlands, following the 1745 Jacobite rebellion. During the Gordon Riots of 1780, he was employed to record the military encampments in London. He was chief drawing master at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich from 1768 to 1796. Sandby was involved in the establishment of the Society of Artists and was a founder member of the Royal Academy. His made numerous views of Windsor Castle and Windsor Great Park, over a period of around 50 years.

Places

England, London, Hyde Park

Subjects

yoke, horseback, barrel, piper, drum (as subject), musician, dance, playing, smoking pipe, drinking, reading (as Subject), topography, genre, townscape/cityscape, dog, horse, boy, man, girl, 18th century costume, dress, military uniform, coat, stockings, waistcoat, breeches, parasol, walking stick, hat, bucket, crutches, begging, sword, soldier, park, tent/marquee, table (as Subject)

Materials & Techniques

aquatint, colour aquatint

Artist

Paul Sandby (1731 - 1809)

Title

The Encampment in Hyde Park, 1780

Date

published 4 June 1781

Medium

Colour aquatint

Acquisition

Purchased from Agnew's, January 1956

GAC number

3416