The aim of this section is to make good the defects of historical study, so far, at least, as the limited space at our disposal will permit. With this object in view we have selected a baker’s dozen of the more famous artists of the past, and we will endeavour to indicate some of the qualities which make their works a joy and delight to those who have the privilege of knowing them. In each case we will supply, in tabloid form, a certain amount of biographical information, as knowledge of the time and place in which an artist works and the conditions under which he produces helps us to understand what he has done; we shall also attempt to point out the chief public galleries where each artist’s works [Illustration: PLATE III. (_In the possession of Messrs. J. Palser & Sons._) “KIRKHAM ABBEY.” BY JOHN SELL COTMAN, R.W.S.] can be seen (when happier times bring about the reopening of our museums and art galleries), and the sources from which those who care for it can obtain fuller information and more authoritative criticism than we ourselves can supply. Such information as we can give will be as correct as we can make it, but it will make no claim whatever to be exhaustive. PAUL SANDBY [Born at Nottingham, 1725; entered military drawing office of the Tower of London, 1746; draughtsman to a survey of the Northern and Western Highlands, 1748-1751, during which time he published some etchings of Scottish views; worked at Windsor for some years from 1752, where his brother, Thomas, was Deputy Ranger; chief drawing-master, Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, 1768-1797; elected Director of the Society of Artists, October 18, 1766; original member of Royal Academy, 1768; introduced the aquatint method of engraving into England; published first set of twelve aquatints of views in South Wales, 1774, a second set of views in North Wales, 1776, and a third set in 1777; died 1809. EXHIBITED: Society of Artists, 1760-’68; Royal Academy, 1769-’77, ’79-’82, ’86-’88, ’90-’95, ’97-1802, ’06-’09; Free Society, 1782, ’83. WORKS IN PUBLIC GALLERIES: National Gallery; V. and A. Museum (Water-Colours); British Museum; National Gallery of Ireland; Greenwich Hospital; Diploma Gallery, R.A.; Manchester Whitworth Institute; Norwich, Nottingham, Glasgow, etc., Art Galleries. BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES: “Thomas and Paul Sandby,” by William Sandby, 1892; “D. N. B.”; Roget’s “History of the Old Water-Colour Society,” 1891. REPRODUCTIONS OF WORKS: “The Earlier English Water-Colour Painters,” by Cosmo Monkhouse; “The English Water-Colour Painters,” by A. J. Finberg; “Early English Water-Colour,” by C. E. Hughes; “Water-Colour,” by the Hon. Neville Lytton; “Water-Colour Painting,” by A. W. Rich; “The Royal Academy” (THE STUDIO Summer Number, 1904); THE STUDIO, Jan. 1918.]