Invitation to a sketching Club (36 Poultney Street)

This watercolour was produced to invite the Sandby brothers’ friend and lawyer, Theodosius Forrest to an evening drawing class at Thomas Sandby’s house at Poultney Street. They organised regular drawing classes and here we see a model in theatrical dress derived from the costume of a Roman soldier posing to the group. The watercolour is accompanied by verses inviting the guest to ‘attack cold beef and wine’ after the evening’s study indicating that the drawing class was also a highly social event.

In 1753 London’s artists congregated around St Martin’s Lane Academy. Administered by William Hogarth on a democratically egalitarian basis, artists could meet here on equal terms. Paul Sandby was increasingly disenchanted with this idea , preferring the establishment of a formal academy for which this drawing class may have provided the genesis.