John Comerford c.1770-1832

SOLD

Portrait of James Butler, 19th Earl of Ormond (1777-1838)

Watercolour on ivory, 10.4 x 8 cm.
Signed and inscribed on the reverse ‘James Butler12th/Earl of Ossory 19th Earl of Ormond/Marquess of Ormond/Painted by Comerford/ 1808/ Honble Jas/ Colonel Butler/ Comerford pinxt/ 1808/ Dublin.’

Comerford was the most prolific miniaturist to have spent his entire career in Ireland. He was educated at the Dublin Society Drawing Schools in the 1780s. On leaving the Dublin Society Schools, Comerford divided his time between Dublin and Kilkenny where he painted several generations of Butler and Ormond portraits.

Jonah Barrington described Butler as well-read and friendly, ‘a hard-goer’ as it was called, and an incessant talker...As an engaging person, has many manly qualities, and to the full as much intellectual promise as any man of his country, these were either blunted by dissipation or absorbed in the licentious influence of a fashionable connection. In 1821, he was installed as a Knight of St. Patrick.

Paul Caffrey