A pen and ink and watercolour drawing of a seated male figure in a blue-flowered dressing gown. Strong hatched lines in pen and ink over the dressing-gown sleeve.

Paul Sandby spent several years in Scotland from 1746-50, where he worked for the Board of Ordnance under Colonel Watson. He also met Andrew Bell (1726–1809), a printmaker, who taught him how to etch. The Royal Collection contains several figure drawings by Sandby from this early period in Scotland. The printmaker was previously misidentified by Paul Oppé as Alexander Bell (for further information about Bell see Joe Rock, ‘The ‘A’ Marked Porcelain: Further Evidence for the Scottish Option’, Transactions of the English Ceramic Circle Vol. 17 Pt. 1, 1999, pp. 69-78).

This drawing is probably a portrait of Andrew Bell. A drawing of a violin player on the same mount (RCIN 914336) bears the inscription 'Mr Bell, engraver of Edinburgh' but this inscription has probably been transferred from an earlier mount to the wrong drawing. It is probably this drawing that shows Bell, as the sitter in this drawing is similar to another drawing in the Royal Collection (RCIN 914408) also inscribed as Mr Bell.