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Windsor Great Park with Virginia Water, looking north c. 1753

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Date

c. 1753

Description

A watercolour drawing of a view of Virginia Water in Windsor Great Park. On two sheets of paper, joined vertically.
This work is one of a set of five watercolours of Cranbourne and the Great Park, all early works by Thomas Sandby, who continued to work for William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland after returning from Scotland following the Duke's appointment as Ranger of Windsor Great Park (the others are RCINs 914636, 914637, 914638, 914640). In 1768 a set of 'Six Different Views of Cranbourne Lodge and Park' was recorded in the Duke's Dressing Room at the Great Lodge; they are almost certainly the same as the 'Six different Views in Water Colours' recorded in the same room three years earlier (Royal Archives: WRA CP 1/19). The sixth view has not survived.
In 1753 the Duke oversaw the creation of an artificial lake at Virginia Water. At the centre is an obelisk built in the Duke’s honour by his father George II. The watercolour shows the outline of the lake before the destruction of a pondhead caused by flooding in 1768 and the extension of the lake towards Egham.
Descriptive Medium: 'Pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and bodycolour', 'pencil, pen and ink, bodycolour', 'watercolour painting'