Gorry Gallery

Gorry Gallery Gorry Cover.indd 1 22/02/2005 02:16:04 pm GORRY GALLERY requests the pleasure of your company at the private view of An Exhibition of 18th, 19th and 20th Century Irish Paintings on Wednesday, 2nd March, 2005 Wine 6 o’clock This exhibition can be viewed prior to the opening by appointment and at www.gorrygallery.ie Kindly note that all paintings in this exhibition are for sale from 6.00 p.m. 2nd March – 12th March 2005 13513 Gorry Gallery.indd 3 16/02/2005 09:12:18 am 5. ROBERT CRONE, c.1718 – 1779 ‘A view of the Roman Campagna from the Temple of Vesta at Delphi with a view of Rome in the far distance’ Oil on canvas 95.6 x 132.7 Signed, inscribed ‘Roma’, and dated 1765 Travelling in Italy in 1764, John Martin noted an expatriate group of Irish artists: ‘Mr Crone, Mr Delane and Mr Forrester the only persons from our part of the world who practice landscape painting are all Irish’. Indeed this group of artists defined a remarkable branch of the eighteenth-century landscape school, mixing native influence with their exposure to both the Roman Campagna and the incipient neo-classical movement. The work of all three artists is extremely rare, but has been the subject of much recent scholarly enquiry. Crone was born in, or about 1718, thus making him at least ten years older than artists of Barret’s generation. After studying in Dublin with Robert Hunter and his kinsman Phillip Hussey, Crone went to Italy where he was to spend some twelve years. He is first documented in Rome in 1755. By Easter of that year he was sharing a house with his fellow Irish artist James Forrester and Jacob Ennis in the Strada della Croce. In Rome Crone studied with Barret’s great rival, Richard Wilson, who was to greatly influence his stylistic formation. Their manner of landscape drawing was almost identical, and one signed drawing by Crone has allowed the reattribution to the Irish artist of many sheets previously thought to be by Wilson. Like many of his fellow countrymen, Crone supplemented his income by buying works of art for collectors back in Ireland. As well as for its beauty as a painting, the present work is of scholarly significance as it is signed, and dated 1765 the year after Crone had attracted Martin’s attention. Executed, then towards the end of his stay in Italy and showing a very classical view of Delphi, the painting demonstrates Crone’s early assimilation of the Italian classical tradition. This was noted by Martin who wrote that Crone ‘was very clever in his profession and must have great natural genius… He has chiefly studied Claude Lorrain and I believe is reckoned to have a good deal of his manner’. If some Claudean motifs are repeated here in a slightly undigested manner, the overall composition is strongly conceived, the colour vibrant and the figures lively and well ntegrated into the landscape. The light which infuses the pictures is very much that of Italy, making a pleasing contrast to the damp, verdant landscapes that Barret was executing in Dublin and London at this very date. The two tracks of the Irish landscape school, the native tradition, of Barret, Ashford and Roberts and the emigré strand of Crone, Forrester and Delane show the different directions in which landscape painting could develop in the 1760’s. This, one of the ﬁnest of Crone’s works to have survived, is an important document in that dialogue. Unfortunately his artistic development was affected by his poor state of health. Crone was hunchbacked and was unkindly described by one contemporary as a ‘little crooked Irishman’. As a youth he had also suffered from epileptic fits which recurred after a fall from scaffolding while copying in the Barberini Palace. Crone left Italy, in 1767 settling in London where he exhibited at both the Royal Academy and the Society of Artists and attracted Royal patronage. He also sent work for exhibition in Dublin. Martin concluded his remarks on Crone with a tribute that deserves to be repeated, ‘He is Irish and does honour to his country not only as a fine painter but as a very honest man.’ The rediscovery of the present signed work by Crone is a welcome addition to his small oeuvre and it is to be hoped that other works can be attributed to the artist on the basis of this securely dated work. 4 13513 Gorry Gallery.indd 4 16/02/2005 09:12:23 am 12. GEORGE BARRET R.A., 1732 – 1784 ‘The Entrance to the Dargle Gorge’ Oil on canvas 71 x 47 Signed, also signed and dated 1763 on old relining canvas, almost certainly transcribed from the original by the artist. It is interesting to note that Barret first went to London in 1763 bringing several works with him including a ‘View in the Dargle’ which he exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1764. Few of Barrets paintings are signed and the picture exhibited here is not a particularly large work hence it seems reasonable to suggest that this signed ‘Irish’ landscape may have been one of those brought to London by the artist. 5 13513 Gorry Gallery.indd 5 16/02/2005 09:12:27 am 10. WILLIAM VAN DER HAGEN fl. 1720 – 1745 ‘The Cabragh House Capriccio’ Oil on canvas, 110 x 143 Signed and dated 1733 Provenance: Henry Seagrave d.1739 Cabragh House, County Dublin Although born in Holland, van der Hagen worked extensively in Ireland, and is of fundamental importance to the establishment of the great landscape school that arose here from the mid-eighteenth century. He clearly travelled extensively before settling in Ireland. Views are known of Gibraltar, Sicily and even North Africa although it is not certain that all of them are based on first hand experience. Van der Hagen initially settled in England but moved to Ireland in, or about 1722. His presence is first noted by Harding’s Impartial Newsletter in 1722 where he is recorded as “lately arrived from London” and as painting sets for the Theatre Royal. Some ten years later he is recorded as painting the scenery for a staging of Cephalus and Procris, which was described at the time as “finer painted than ever seen in this kingdom”. In addition to his work in the theatre, van der Hagen was busy with other commissions from his earliest days in Ireland. Two years after his arrival he painted an altarpiece for St. Michan’s Church, Dublin which has not survived nor has the “painted glory” for St. Patrick’s in Waterford. In 1728 he was commissioned in his View of Derry (formerly Derry City Council) and The Landing of King William at Carrickfergus (Ulster Museum). Given his scene painting background and facility for composition it is not surprising that he also found work as a decorative painter. One eighteenth-century source notes “he painted many houses in this kingdom”; for example at Curraghmore, County Waterford he completed a trompe d’oeil scheme with the staircase decorated with “beautiful paintings by Van der Egan (sic) such as columns, festoons, etc., between which are several landscapes” while the ceiling was “painted in perspective and represents a dome, the columns seeming to rise, through a flat surface”. Given the temporary nature of these decorative schemes which were so often redone as taste changed, it is remarkable that one of van der Hagen’s grisaille rooms has survived almost intact, although now dismantled. This was completed for the Christmas family of Whitfield Court, County Waterford and comprises eighteen panels of gods and goddesses. Van der Hagen clearly had close ties of patronage with the Waterford area. In addition to these house decorations and the work at St. Patrick’s Church he was commissioned to paint a large view of the city of Waterford for which, in 1736, he was paid £20 by the Corporation. Based on stylistic similarities with this work it is possible to attribute to him the painting of the Duke of Dorset’s State Ball in Dublin Castle and possibly a bird’s eye view of Carton. However, van der Hagen’s true importance lies in his capriccio landscapes of which this is a fine example. Van der Hagen painted a series of these, several of which served as overmantles. Perhaps the finest of these is the example from Kilsharvan House, County Meath (private collection) which is preserved in a remarkably elaborate rococo frame. However, van der Hagen also fulfilled similar commissions for patrons surrounding Dublin notably William Pallister, from Pallister House (later Loreto convent) in Rathfarnham. Likewise the present work was commissioned by Henry Segrave, for Cabragh House, County Dublin, where it hung in the main hall An accompanying capriccio also by van der Hagen hung in the house’s boudoir. The composition is typical of van der Hagen’s capriccios with a pleasing combination of landscape, architectural elements and figures. These are nicely integrated by the spacing of the figures throughout the picture plane, and tied together by a subtle use of related colours. Unlike the case in some capriccios, for example by followers of Vernet, the landscape is not dominated by the architectural elements, indeed it is as much of an exercise in pure landscape as a capriccio. The group of the lower left of a woman riding a horse while talking to a traveller is particularly finely painted, demonstrating the artist’s fluid and scintillating brush technique. The picture is signed and dated 1733, a date consistent with his other capriccio landscapes.

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