Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Memmingen, Bavaria, Germany
About Benjamin Zobel
- Benjamin Zobel (21 September 1762 - 24 October 1830) was a German-British painter, who developed the technique of sandpainting, also called marmotinto.
- Examples of these sandpaintings exist in the Memmingen city museum archives in Germany, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, Ontario.
- Zobel was born in Memmingen, Germany, at Weinmarkt 7, the family home and pastry business.
- His father Johann Georg Zobel was a master pastry-chef.
- Benjamin learned this craft from him, becoming a master pastry-chef at the age of 20.
- He left Germany soon thereafter, spent two years in Amsterdam, and then moved to London.
- His career in London began as a master pastry-chef at the court of the German-speaking King George III.
- Not only was Benjamin a gifted pastry chef, but he had also become an artist.
- Benjamin was asked to create table decorations (tray-painting or table-decking), using colored sugars on silver platters at the center of banquet tables at the royal court.
- These table decorations were popular at the time and involved creating various figures such as flowers, animals, or fruit.
- At the end of the meal, the colored sugars would be swept away.
- King George III suggested making longer lasting pictures and Benjamin Zobel developed a technique using colored sand fixed to wood or pasteboard using glue.
- Many of Benjamin Zobel's sandpaintings feature animals and country scenes similar to those seen in the paintings of his friend George Morland, a painter prominent in the "Isle of Wight School.” The Isle of Wight is well known for being a source of colored sands (Culture of the Isle of Wight).
- Zobel died in London. Benjamin Zobel's son George James Jenkins Zobel (2 December 1811 London, UK - 18 June 1881 Surrey, UK) and great-great-uncle Elias Zobel (2 November 1677 Memmingen, Germany - 20 April 1718 Prague, Czech Republic) were also noted artists.
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