CIRCA 1820 - 30, IN THE MANNER OF BENJAMIN ZOBEL, AFTER THE PAINTING BY GEORGE STUBBS

Benjamin Zobel (1762-1831) is credited with inventing the technique of sand painting and though the ancient Japanese skill of bon-kei or 'tray picture' was known, Zobel was certainly the first to introduce the art to England. A native of Memmingen in Bavaria (Swabia), Zobel was employed by the Prince Regent's chef Louis Weltje and became a 'Table Decker' at Windsor Castle. The custom of 'Table Decking' had been introduced by George III; the table cloth at dinner was elaborately patterned with designs of coloured sands, marble dust, powdered glass or bread crumbs. Zobel became a skilled confectioner and was entrusted with the decoration, made in coloured sugars, of the sweet courses served at banquets. The method he employed for making sugar patterns was identical to that which he used to make his sand pictures; that is the sugar, or sand, is shaken through a cut and pleated playing-card. Having converted the ephemeral process of sugar pattern to a permanent form of picture making, and believing that there was a future in it, he continued to make his sand pictures in his spare time.
George Stubbs (d.1806) was the foremost painter of animals in Britain during the 18th century, with an unsurpassed knowledge of animal anatomy. The sand picture offered here is based on Stubbs's original painted around 1770, now in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (no. 99.95) while a mezzotint of the same image is in the collection of the British Museum (no.1917.1208.2441). The latter was executed by John Dixon and published in 1773.