Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys
Encyclopedia
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
"Pre-Raphaelite" painter, illustrator and draughtsman, of the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
.
Artistic studies
He was born in Norwich, England, and received his earliest lessons in art from his father, who was himself a painter. His early studies show that he had a natural gift for careful and beautiful drawing. In 1846 Sandys attended the Norwich School of DesignNorwich School of Art & Design
Norwich University College of the Arts is a higher education specialist art, design and media university college, based on a single site in the centre of Norwich, in the United Kingdom.-History:...
. In the same and next year his talent was recognized by the Society of Arts.
Personal relationships
He married Georgiana Creed, but this marriage only lasted three years, although they never divorced. He had a long affair with the Romany woman Keomi Gray, who sat as a model both for him and Dante Gabriel RossettiDante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
, and perhaps also for Simeon Solomon
Simeon Solomon
Simeon Solomon was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter-Biography:...
. He and Gray had at least two sons.
In 1862 Sandys met actress Mary Emma Jones, known as Miss Clive, when she modeled for The Magdalen, now owned by the Norwich Castle Museum. A relationship developed between the two, he became devoted to her, taking her as his common-law wife for the rest of his life. She gave birth to a large number of children, 10 of whom were raised under the name of Neville and survived after Sandys' death. His work Proud Maisie made in 1867, was inspired by Mary, so much so that he made at least 11 versions by 1904.
He died in the Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
area of London in 1904.
Early work
He displayed great skills as a draughtsman, achieving recognition with his print parodying John Everett MillaisJohn Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...
's Sir Isumbras at the Ford in 1857. The caricaturist turned the horse of Sir Isumbras into a donkey labelled J. R., Oxon. (John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
). Upon it were seated Millais himself, in the character of the knight, with Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
and William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt OM was an English painter, and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Biography:...
as the two children, one before and one behind.The caricature, produced using the new autographic lithographic, caused a lot of talk about who the artist might be and ultimately introduced Sandys to the London art community.
Rossetti and Sandys became close friends, and from May 1866 to July 1867, Sandys lived with Rossetti in Cheyne Walk
Cheyne Walk
Cheyne Walk , is a historic street in Chelsea, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It takes its name from William Lord Cheyne who owned the manor of Chelsea until 1712. Most of the houses were built in the early 18th century. Before the construction in the 19th century of the busy...
, Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
. Sandys works were profoundly influenced by those of Rossetti. He focused mainly on mythological subjects and portraits.
Drawings and illustration
EngravingsSome of the first introductions to Pre-Raphaelite teachings emerged in magazines, such as Once a Week
Once A Week (magazine)
Once A Week was an English weekly illustrated literary magazine published by Bradbury and Evans. According to John Sutherland, "[h]istorically the magazine's main achievement was to provide an outlet for [an] innovative group of illustrators [in] the 1860s."The magazine was founded in consequence...
, the Cornhill Magazine
Cornhill Magazine
The Cornhill Magazine was a Victorian magazine and literary journal named after Cornhill Street in London.Cornhill was founded by George Murray Smith in 1860 and was published until 1975. It was a literary journal with a selection of articles on diverse subjects and serialisations of new novels...
, Good Words
Good Words
Good Words was a 19th-century monthly periodical in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1860 by Scottish publisher Alexander Strahan. Its first editor was Norman Macleod; after his death in 1872, it was edited by his brother, Donald Macleod....
and Sunday Magazine. Sandys began drawing in the 1860s for Once a Week
Once A Week (magazine)
Once A Week was an English weekly illustrated literary magazine published by Bradbury and Evans. According to John Sutherland, "[h]istorically the magazine's main achievement was to provide an outlet for [an] innovative group of illustrators [in] the 1860s."The magazine was founded in consequence...
, the Cornhill Magazine
Cornhill Magazine
The Cornhill Magazine was a Victorian magazine and literary journal named after Cornhill Street in London.Cornhill was founded by George Murray Smith in 1860 and was published until 1975. It was a literary journal with a selection of articles on diverse subjects and serialisations of new novels...
, Good Words
Good Words
Good Words was a 19th-century monthly periodical in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1860 by Scottish publisher Alexander Strahan. Its first editor was Norman Macleod; after his death in 1872, it was edited by his brother, Donald Macleod....
and other periodicals, his work influenced by Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
, Ambrosius Holbein
Ambrosius Holbein
Ambrosius Holbein was a German and Swiss artist in painting, drawing and printmaking.-Biography:He was the elder brother, by about three years, of Hans Holbein the Younger and like his brother was born in Augsburg , a center of art, culture and trade at that time...
, and Alfred Rethel
Alfred Rethel
Alfred Rethel was a German history painter.-Early life and education:Rethel was born in Aachen in 1816. He showed an interest in art in his early life, and at the age of thirteen he executed a drawing which procured his admission to the academy of Düsseldorf...
. Sandys made a total of 26 between 1859 and 1866, but each was a fine representation of this genre, faithfully engraved by professional wood-engravers, including the Dalziel brothers and Joseph Swain, that they are worthy of the collector's portfolio. For the engravers to be successful in carving the intricate illustrations onto wood, they needed to start with a detailed, clear print from the artist. Sandys had an eye and talent for exacting detail, an intention to accurately reflect the subject, revealed in the quality of his works, equally impressive for its technical detail as for its imaginative point of view.
Sandys' The Death of King Warwulf is an example of his ability to create drawings that translated well for the engravings. Swirling shapes of flames, the curve the boat, its sail and the king's clothes that surround him create a feeling of movement. The focal point is the king's bowed head.
His last woodcut was on the subject of Danaë in the Brazen Chamber. It was engraved by Swain for Once A Week but suppressed by the publication's editor, despite Sandys having the support of the magazine's publishers, on the grounds that it was too sensuous.
He drew only in the magazines. No books illustrated by him can be traced. So his exquisite draughtsmanship has to be sought for in the old bound-up periodical volumes which are now hunted by collectors, or in publications such as Dalziels' Bible Gallery and the Cornhill Gallery and books of drawings, with verses attached to them, made to lie upon the drawing-room tables of those who had for the most part no idea of their merits.
Chalk drawings of lettered men
He made a number of chalk drawings of famous men of letters, including Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
, Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
, Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
, and James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets...
.
Studies for paintings
Study for Vivien depicts Sandy's lover, Keomi Gray, as Vivien of Tennyson's poem Idylls of the King
Idylls of the King
Idylls of the King, published between 1856 and 1885, is a cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love for Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him, and the rise and fall of Arthur's kingdom...
. In the poem Vivien is the femme fatale in the story of King Arthur who used her looks to seduce Merlin to learn his secrets. Sandys had previously used tales from King Arthur as inspiration for his work, such as King Pelles' Daughter. He was drawn to stories of women who "seduce, entrap and destroy men, such as Helen of Troy, Morgan Le Fay
Morgan le Fay
Morgan le Fay , alternatively known as Morgane, Morgaine, Morgana and other variants, is a powerful sorceress in the Arthurian legend. Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or magician...
and Medea
Medea
Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children, Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of...
." Sandys portrays Vivien as a beautiful, self-assured woman. The apple placed in front of her may refer to the story of Adam and Eve.
Study for Autumn, made in 1860, is one of the many studies Sandys made before painting Autumn and provides evidence of Sandys' skill as a draughtsman. He captures minute details, such as the soldier's uniform and the plants and flowers. The study is much like the finished painting, except that the ginger jar is in the foreground.
Paintings
Early in the 1860s he began to exhibit the paintings which set the seal upon his fame. The best known of these are Vivien (1863), Morgan le Fay (1864), Cassandra and MedeaMedea (Sandys painting)
Medea is an oil painting on canvas by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Frederick Sandys which was created in 1868. The painting was submitted to the Royal Academy of Arts for display in the Summer Exhibition of 1868 but it was rejected - most likely for political rather than artistic reasons.Medea was...
(1868).
Sandys never became a popular painter. He painted little, and the dominant influence upon his art was the influence exercised by lofty conceptions of tragic power. There was in it a sombre intensity and an almost stern beauty which lifted it far above the ideals of the crowd. The Scandinavian Sagas and Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur is a compilation by Sir Thomas Malory of Romance tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table...
gave him subjects after his own heart. The Valkyrie and Morgan le Fay represent his work at its very best.
See also
- Emma SandysEmma SandysEmma Sandys was a 19th-century English painter.Sandys was born in Norwich, England in 1843. She was taught by her father, Anthony Sands, and worked in portraits in both oil and chalk, often in medieval or period dress...
- List of Pre-Raphaelite paintings - including the work of Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys.
External links
- Birmingham Museums & Art Gallerys Online Pre-Raphaelite Resource Large online collection of works by Frederick Sandys
- Frederick Sandys at Artcylopaedia.
- Frederick Sandys & the Pre-Raphaelites at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery.
- The Pre-Raph Pack Discover more about the artists, the techniques they used and a timeline spanning 100 years.