Irish School c.1800
Gothic Ruin and Round Tower Beside a Lake
Oil on canvas, 127 x 182 cm.
Inscribed (on arch) with initials ‘B. A. of P.’
With its lakeside Gothic ruin and round tower this atmospheric landscape is almost certainly an imagined ‘capriccio’, rather than the depiction of a specific place. The inclusion of the round tower suggests that it may be intended to represent an Irish scene, and indeed the work itself is likely to be by an Irish artist. The style and subject matter are essentially Romantic. Although the artist has not been identified, the work shares attributes found in the paintings of earlier eighteenth century artists such as George Barret and the Cork painter John Butts.
In the left foreground, a group of men serve to introduce the viewer to the principal feature, a ruined Gothic abbey beside a lake. However, in contrast with the venerable atmosphere of the abbey, and oblivious to their surroundings, the men are engaged in a game of cards. Nearby, a poacher leans down to assist an accomplice to climb a river bank. Such elements of humour are rare in eighteenth-century British and Irish landscape painting; generally figures, known as ‘staffage’, are shown in more serious attitudes and poses, leaning on rakes, fishing, or pausing to admire the vista, providing what Gainsborough called a little ‘business for the eye’. The figures in this painting share characteristics with Butts’s figures, in that they are stocky and not so elegant. Framing the distant prospect of lake and mountains with trees in the foreground is a convention taken from theatre stage design, one that adds pictorial depth to the composition. Many artists of the period found employment as scene painters; in Dublin the principal theatres were at Smock Alley, Crow Street and Aungier Street. Butts worked at Crow Street Theatre when it was managed by Spranger Barry, who also ran the Theatre Royal in Cork. Scenic artists often painted sets using parallel wings, or ‘flats’, a device that gave the impression of landscape receding into the distance. This system was adapted for easel paintings, enhancing the sense of depth.
Unlike his younger contemporary George Barret, and his one-time pupil James Barry, John Butts did not come under the direct influence of Edmund Burke, who had studied at Trinity College. In 1753, Burke published his philosophical enquiry into ‘the Sublime and the Beautiful’ and a decade later was back in Ireland, working as secretary to the Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Hamilton. In his aesthetic writings, Burke exhorted artists to venture out of their studios and walk amongst the mountains of county Wicklow and other picturesque areas, painting scenes from nature. In his 1762 Anecdotes of Painting Horace Walpole pointed out that there were landscapes in Britain worthy of Claude Lorrain, but artists of his calibre were not to be found. Owned by the Duke of Devonshire and published as mezzotint prints in 1777, Lorrain’s Liber Veritatis, a book containing small copies of most of his paintings, enabled artists to learn from his work. Artists copied prints after Lorrain, producing landscapes that featured ancient ruins, framed by trees and illuminated by the rays of a setting sun. These paintings depicted scenes as twilight approached, creating an atmosphere of dream-like antiquity and nostalgic feeling. Such landscapes, in which the setting sun casts its rose-tinted rays over a Classical landscape, presaged the Romantic movement and were a step ahead of Georgic paintings, ones that depicted ‘improved’ views. Underpinning this Romantic movement was a new sense of national pride that emerged in the late eighteenth century in Europe and further afield; for artists and writers, looking back to medieval times was an oblique way of commenting on the shortcomings of the present, not least in government and politics. With its round tower, this painting shows an artist setting out to achieve these same results, within an Irish context.
The identity of the artist may be contained within a fragmentary inscription visible on the ruin, ‘B. A. of P’—this could be analogous to the initials of a contemporary of Butts, William Hoare of Bath—but there were many scenic artists working in the late eighteenth century and for the present, confirming the identity of the painter of this impressive work remains open to further research.
Dr Peter Murray
Gothic Ruin and Round Tower Beside a Lake
Oil on canvas, 127 x 182 cm.
Inscribed (on arch) with initials ‘B. A. of P.’
With its lakeside Gothic ruin and round tower this atmospheric landscape is almost certainly an imagined ‘capriccio’, rather than the depiction of a specific place. The inclusion of the round tower suggests that it may be intended to represent an Irish scene, and indeed the work itself is likely to be by an Irish artist. The style and subject matter are essentially Romantic. Although the artist has not been identified, the work shares attributes found in the paintings of earlier eighteenth century artists such as George Barret and the Cork painter John Butts.
In the left foreground, a group of men serve to introduce the viewer to the principal feature, a ruined Gothic abbey beside a lake. However, in contrast with the venerable atmosphere of the abbey, and oblivious to their surroundings, the men are engaged in a game of cards. Nearby, a poacher leans down to assist an accomplice to climb a river bank. Such elements of humour are rare in eighteenth-century British and Irish landscape painting; generally figures, known as ‘staffage’, are shown in more serious attitudes and poses, leaning on rakes, fishing, or pausing to admire the vista, providing what Gainsborough called a little ‘business for the eye’. The figures in this painting share characteristics with Butts’s figures, in that they are stocky and not so elegant. Framing the distant prospect of lake and mountains with trees in the foreground is a convention taken from theatre stage design, one that adds pictorial depth to the composition. Many artists of the period found employment as scene painters; in Dublin the principal theatres were at Smock Alley, Crow Street and Aungier Street. Butts worked at Crow Street Theatre when it was managed by Spranger Barry, who also ran the Theatre Royal in Cork. Scenic artists often painted sets using parallel wings, or ‘flats’, a device that gave the impression of landscape receding into the distance. This system was adapted for easel paintings, enhancing the sense of depth.
Unlike his younger contemporary George Barret, and his one-time pupil James Barry, John Butts did not come under the direct influence of Edmund Burke, who had studied at Trinity College. In 1753, Burke published his philosophical enquiry into ‘the Sublime and the Beautiful’ and a decade later was back in Ireland, working as secretary to the Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Hamilton. In his aesthetic writings, Burke exhorted artists to venture out of their studios and walk amongst the mountains of county Wicklow and other picturesque areas, painting scenes from nature. In his 1762 Anecdotes of Painting Horace Walpole pointed out that there were landscapes in Britain worthy of Claude Lorrain, but artists of his calibre were not to be found. Owned by the Duke of Devonshire and published as mezzotint prints in 1777, Lorrain’s Liber Veritatis, a book containing small copies of most of his paintings, enabled artists to learn from his work. Artists copied prints after Lorrain, producing landscapes that featured ancient ruins, framed by trees and illuminated by the rays of a setting sun. These paintings depicted scenes as twilight approached, creating an atmosphere of dream-like antiquity and nostalgic feeling. Such landscapes, in which the setting sun casts its rose-tinted rays over a Classical landscape, presaged the Romantic movement and were a step ahead of Georgic paintings, ones that depicted ‘improved’ views. Underpinning this Romantic movement was a new sense of national pride that emerged in the late eighteenth century in Europe and further afield; for artists and writers, looking back to medieval times was an oblique way of commenting on the shortcomings of the present, not least in government and politics. With its round tower, this painting shows an artist setting out to achieve these same results, within an Irish context.
The identity of the artist may be contained within a fragmentary inscription visible on the ruin, ‘B. A. of P’—this could be analogous to the initials of a contemporary of Butts, William Hoare of Bath—but there were many scenic artists working in the late eighteenth century and for the present, confirming the identity of the painter of this impressive work remains open to further research.
Dr Peter Murray
Gothic Ruin and Round Tower Beside a Lake
Oil on canvas, 127 x 182 cm.
Inscribed (on arch) with initials ‘B. A. of P.’
With its lakeside Gothic ruin and round tower this atmospheric landscape is almost certainly an imagined ‘capriccio’, rather than the depiction of a specific place. The inclusion of the round tower suggests that it may be intended to represent an Irish scene, and indeed the work itself is likely to be by an Irish artist. The style and subject matter are essentially Romantic. Although the artist has not been identified, the work shares attributes found in the paintings of earlier eighteenth century artists such as George Barret and the Cork painter John Butts.
In the left foreground, a group of men serve to introduce the viewer to the principal feature, a ruined Gothic abbey beside a lake. However, in contrast with the venerable atmosphere of the abbey, and oblivious to their surroundings, the men are engaged in a game of cards. Nearby, a poacher leans down to assist an accomplice to climb a river bank. Such elements of humour are rare in eighteenth-century British and Irish landscape painting; generally figures, known as ‘staffage’, are shown in more serious attitudes and poses, leaning on rakes, fishing, or pausing to admire the vista, providing what Gainsborough called a little ‘business for the eye’. The figures in this painting share characteristics with Butts’s figures, in that they are stocky and not so elegant. Framing the distant prospect of lake and mountains with trees in the foreground is a convention taken from theatre stage design, one that adds pictorial depth to the composition. Many artists of the period found employment as scene painters; in Dublin the principal theatres were at Smock Alley, Crow Street and Aungier Street. Butts worked at Crow Street Theatre when it was managed by Spranger Barry, who also ran the Theatre Royal in Cork. Scenic artists often painted sets using parallel wings, or ‘flats’, a device that gave the impression of landscape receding into the distance. This system was adapted for easel paintings, enhancing the sense of depth.
Unlike his younger contemporary George Barret, and his one-time pupil James Barry, John Butts did not come under the direct influence of Edmund Burke, who had studied at Trinity College. In 1753, Burke published his philosophical enquiry into ‘the Sublime and the Beautiful’ and a decade later was back in Ireland, working as secretary to the Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Hamilton. In his aesthetic writings, Burke exhorted artists to venture out of their studios and walk amongst the mountains of county Wicklow and other picturesque areas, painting scenes from nature. In his 1762 Anecdotes of Painting Horace Walpole pointed out that there were landscapes in Britain worthy of Claude Lorrain, but artists of his calibre were not to be found. Owned by the Duke of Devonshire and published as mezzotint prints in 1777, Lorrain’s Liber Veritatis, a book containing small copies of most of his paintings, enabled artists to learn from his work. Artists copied prints after Lorrain, producing landscapes that featured ancient ruins, framed by trees and illuminated by the rays of a setting sun. These paintings depicted scenes as twilight approached, creating an atmosphere of dream-like antiquity and nostalgic feeling. Such landscapes, in which the setting sun casts its rose-tinted rays over a Classical landscape, presaged the Romantic movement and were a step ahead of Georgic paintings, ones that depicted ‘improved’ views. Underpinning this Romantic movement was a new sense of national pride that emerged in the late eighteenth century in Europe and further afield; for artists and writers, looking back to medieval times was an oblique way of commenting on the shortcomings of the present, not least in government and politics. With its round tower, this painting shows an artist setting out to achieve these same results, within an Irish context.
The identity of the artist may be contained within a fragmentary inscription visible on the ruin, ‘B. A. of P’—this could be analogous to the initials of a contemporary of Butts, William Hoare of Bath—but there were many scenic artists working in the late eighteenth century and for the present, confirming the identity of the painter of this impressive work remains open to further research.
Dr Peter Murray