These miniatures show the private side of Sandby's art. He painted them specifically as gifts for friends and pupils, often as New Year greeting cards. Their informal nature and their minute scale would have precluded their ever being exhibited publicly. The scenes are drawn from the artist's imagination and are visual puns on the prevailing tastes in landscape art. Sandby was doing such small-scale works even until his eightieth year, and these works date from after 1800.
