Conway Castle

In contrast to 'Old Windsor', also in the Walker's collection (WAG 988), this view is a more sophisticated composition using a tree and sloping hillsides to lead the eye into the scene. Similar devices were used by the 17th century landscape painter Claude Lorrain (?1604/05 – 1682). Among the figures on the slope there is a seated artist making a sketch, perhaps Sandby himself. Sandby was first in Wales between 1769 and 1770, but this watercolour was probably made at a considerably later date. A similar work in the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, is dated 1802.