145
The Deepwell Collection
100 Alfred Grey RHA (1845-1926)
A Faithful Companion
Oil on canvas, 106.5 x 81.4cm (42 x 32”)
Signed
Provenance: Purchased at the Annual IADA Antiques
Fair, Mansion House 1982 by John P. Reihill, Deepwell,
Blackrock, Co. Dublin
Despite the prodigious quantity of works exhibited
by Grey throughout his life,
A Faithful Companion
does not appear among them.This may well be due to
a subsequent change of the title of the painting. For
example it could conceivably be any one of some five
paintings entitled
Repose
.
Typical of the subject-mat-
ter of painters of this period, the painting displays a
sheepdog sitting attentively by his master’s fireside
chair, evidence of whose imminent return is suggested
by the still-smoking clay pipe. To the left is a brace of
game in whose demise the dog has played a key role
and which he now patiently guards.
Little information exists in relation to this painter,
which is surprising when one notes the quantity of
work which he exhibited at the RHA during his ca-
reer. With the exception of four random years during
the sixty year period in which he worked, (1864-1934),
Grey showed an average of eight paintings annually
- a total by the end of his life of almost 500 works.
He lived all his life in the inner northside of Dublin
city giving his address as 4 Lower Gardiner Street for
forty-five years. He was the son of the painter Charles
Grey and was elected RHA in 1871. He died in Dub-
lin in 1926.
€3,000 - 5,000
