24
13
Edmond Charles Ribton Byrne de Satur (fl. 1860-1885)
A Lonely Dwelling
Oil on canvas, 30 x 61.5cm (12 x 24¼”)
Signed and extensively inscribed verso
Provenance: The artist and by descent
Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1882, no. 653
Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1883, no. 147
Born in Dublin, the youngest son of Lawrence Byrne, Edmond practiced from an address at 151, Great Brunswick
Street as well as teaching at the Dublin Society’s School from 1866. He began exhibiting consistently at the RHA
from 1860 until 1873 before leaving for London in 1875. At this time he received an inheritance from an uncle and
altered his surname to Byrne De Satur. Under this name he exhibited at the RA from 1879-1885 and again at the
RHA from 1882-1885.
He married Frances Isabella Anne Smythe (b.1853), daughter of Henry Meade Smythe (1787-1862) and Frances
Barbara Cooke (1817-1906) and they had three daughters.While gifted with much natural talent, Strickland cryp-
tically notes that ‘his mode of life was hardly conductive to his advancement in his profession’.
He died in Highgate, London in 1885 and his remains interred at Glasnevin.
‘A Lonely Dwelling’
clearly shows a debt to the artist’s colony in Grez-sur-Loing and in particular, the work of Frank
O’Meara. By 1885 artists like Lavery, Stott of Oldham and O’Meara were in vogue and inspired many of their
contemporaries in London and Dublin to move away from the more rigorous academic approach of the established
art schools to a more cutting edge en plein air handling of their subject matter.
€800 - 1,200
