169
Important Irish Art
,
wednesday 1st October 2014 at 6pm
174 Edward Sheil RHA (1834-1869)
Making Daisy Chains at the Corner of a Cornfield
Oil on canvas, 16.5 x 64cm (20¼ x 25¼”)
Signed and dated 1857
Edward Shiel was born in Coleraine, Co.Derry around 1834.
He later moved to Cork and became a student at the School
of Art there; later becoming second Master in 1857 and then
was appointed headmaster in 1859. However, although very
successful, his term was brief as he suffered from delicate
health. Sheil was elected ARHA in 1861 and became a full
member in 1864.
A resident of Cork, Shiel maintained a studio in Queen-
stown (now Cobh) from 1865 - 1868. He died aged only
thirty-five at the house of his friend, the writer and patriot
Denny Lane, leaving behind a wife and two children. He was
well thought of as a genre artist and his brother who worked
at the Cork Examiner wrote favourably of his work. Works
by Shiel are rare due to his death at such a young age.
€3,000 - 5,000
