Frederick Sandys, late 1890s–early 1900s.
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Frederick Sandys was born on 1 May 1829 in Norwich, the son of Anthony Sands, a dyer but also a portrait painter and drawing master, and his wife Mary Ann Brown. Frederick received his initial education at St. John's Maddermarket School in Norwich which he attended from 1837-38. In 1839 he entered Norwich Grammar School. His early artistic education was from his father. From 1839 he exhibited drawings at the Norwich Art Union and in 1840 produced his first dated painting. In 1845 Sandys began working for his most important early patron, the Reverend James Bulwer: he drew details of architecture and antiquities for Bulwer's Norfolk Collection over many years. In 1846 Sandys entered the Government School of Design at Norwich. In 1846 and 1847 he was awarded Isis silver medals by the Royal Society of Arts.
Sandys met Millais in London in 1847 for the first time when both were taking part in a Society of Arts examination. Sandys was living in London by 1848 and exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1851. He continued an independent course of study, studying Dürer prints at the British Museum, and making life studies from the nude, likely at the Artists' Society, Clipstone Street. At this time he was employed by London printsellers in the production of engraved portraits. In 1853 he was elected an associate of the British Archaeological Society.
In 1853 he married Georgiana Creed at St. Pancras Church, London. Although the marriage only really lasted three years, he never formally divorced her. Sandys then had a long relationship with the Norfolk Romany woman Keomi Grey with whom he had two daughters and two sons. In 1857 he met D.G. Rossetti for the first time and published anonymously A Nightmare, a print parodying Millais' Sir Isumbras at the Ford. While visiting Norfolk in 1858 he completed his first oil painting Queen Eleanor. This painting and his Mary Magdalene were shown at the British Institution in 1860. Both would eventually be owned by his major patron James Anderson Rose. In November 1859 he made studies of the mixed-race model Fanny Eaton along with Simeon Solomon. That same month he received his first magazine illustration commission, "The Portent," for The Cornhill Magazine. In the 1860s Sandys received a number of commissions for illustrations from other leading magazines such as Once A Week, Good Words, The Shilling Magazine, The Quiver, and The Argosy, as well as for books including the Dalziel Bible Gallery and Willmott's English Sacred Poetry.
By the early 1860s Sandys was an intimate member of the Rossetti circle and a member of the Arundel Club. In April 1862 he travelled with James Anderson Rose to The Netherlands for a short holiday. In 1862 he first met the actress Mary Emma Jones who would later become his common-law wife for the rest of his life. In February 1864 he expanded his list of artistic acquaintances when he was invited for Sunday breakfast at the home of Frederic Leighton, where the guests also included G. P. Boyce, Henry Tanworth Wells, Val Prinsep, and Edward Poynter. In 1865 Sandys was elected a member of the Garrick Club. His friendship with Charles August Howell also began this same year. Sandys lived from May 1866 to July 1867 with D.G. Rossetti at 16 Cheyne Walk. In 1869 a disagreement between Rossetti and Sandys over complaints about plagiarism led to a breakdown in their friendship, although it was resumed in 1875.
From the mid-1860s onwards Sandys was beset with health and financial problems which limited his ability to work. He was declared a bankrupt in in 1876, although his financial problems continued well past this point and he was also declared bankrupt in 1877, 1884, and even as late as 1899. In about 1881 Sandys received a commission from Messrs. Macmillan & Co. to execute a series of crayon portraits of well-known literary persons. He devoted many years to this series, which included portraits of Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, John Morley, J. H. Shorthouse, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Dean Church, Dr. Westcott, J. R. Green, Lord Wolseley, and Mrs. Oliphant. In the later part of his career Sandys largely devoted himself to chalk portraits and "fancy" drawings which highlighted his technical abilities as a draughtsman. Sandys was elected a founding member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers in 1898, which lead to a renewed friendship with Whistler. On June 25, 1904 he died at 5 Hogarth Road in Kensington in London and was buried in Brompton Cemetery.
Bibliography
Bate, Percy. "The Late Frederick Sandys: A Retrospective." The Studio XXXIII (October 1904): 3-17.
Elzea, Betty. Frederick Sandys 1829-1904. A Catalogue Raisonné. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 2001. 299-305
_____. A Singular Man. A Documented Life of the Artist Frederick Sandys: 1829-1904. Norwich: Unicorn Press, 2023.
Gray, John Miller "Frederick Sandys." The Art Journal XLVI (1884): 73-78.
Wood, Esther. A Consideration of the Art of Frederick Sandys; Being the Special Winter Number of The Artist. London: Archibald Constable & Co., 1896.
Created 10 July 2025