ADAM'S - Important Irish Art Auction - 31st May 2017 (Click Lot title for more images and to Place Bid)

A pair, pencil and watercolour, 46.3 x 65.4cm (18¼ x 25¾’’) and 48.2 x 65.1cm (19 x 25½’’)

The first watermarked ‘Russell 1798’. (2)

Exhibited: Probably Dublin, Parliament House, January 1802; London, The Leger Galleries, English Watercolours,

November-December 1980, no. 35.

Literature: ‘

Dictionary of Irish Artists, Dublin and London’

, W.G. Strickland, 1913, II, p. 280;

‘

The Painters of Ireland

’, Crookshank and The Knight of Glin, London, 1978, p. 137;

‘The Watercolours of Ireland’

, Crookshank and The Knight of Glin, London, 1994, p. 87.

A View of Powerscourt

shows the Golden Spears to the right (the Small and Big Sugar Loaves) and Bray Head beyond,

in County Wicklow. In the foreground, the Chief Secretary, the Rt. Hon. Charles Abbot, mounted on his horse, is in-

specting work on the military road and is saluted by a soldier wearing a kilt. The 13th Century castle at Powerscourt,

County Wicklow, was used as the core of the grand Palladian mansion built by Richard Cassels for the 1st Viscount

Powerscourt during the 1730s. It’s extraordinary ornamental gardens, inspired by those at the palaces of Versailles

and Schönbrunn, were created in the 1860s by Mervyn Wingfield, 7th Viscount Powerscourt. Widely regarded as one

of Ireland’s most beautiful houses of this era, it largely burnt down in 1974.

A View of the Valley of Glencree

depicts The Lord Lieutenant, The Earl of Hardwicke, in scarlet coat and the Chief Sec-

retary, The Rt. Hon. Charles Abbot, surveying the site of the proposed site of the Military Barracks. The new military

road, on which are held numerous horses, climbs to the left crossing the river. The Glencree Barracks and Military

Road were built as access to the mountains on account of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The barracks were vacated in

1915 and used as a German prisoner-of-war camp. The current site is close to the German War Cemetery.

We are fortunate to have accompanying documents regarding these magnificent exhibition watercolours. In the

Dublin Castle State Paper Office is a letter from Thomas Sautelle Roberts, dated 18th December 1801, to the Chief

Secretary, the Rt. Hon. Charles Abbot, requesting permission to exhibit drawings which he had made of the Lord

Lieutenant (the 3rd Earl of Hardwicke) and the Chief Secretary. We also know of this exhibition from advertisements

which appeared in the Dublin newspaper,

Saunders Newsletter and Daily Advertiser,

from 12-21st January, 1802 and

Freeman’s Journal

from 12-19th January 1802 and which refer to an exhibition beginning on Wednesday 13th Jan-

uary at Parliament House being ‘Landscapes…..chiefly executed for His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant and The Rt.

Hon. Charles Abbot’. Some of the views mentioned were of different mineral mines but ‘the most interesting views

are taken from the new Military Road.’

The Royal Irish Academy contains an anonymous diary (MS no.24K14/15) in which the entry for 25th January 1802

states that there are 40 large drawings in the exhibition and that Roberts had accompanied the Lord Lieutenant

on his ‘Wicklow Excursion in order to sketch such views for him as he should select….they are yet, striking and valu-

able pieces - the scenes mostly chosen amongst the more unfrequented parts of Co. Wicklow, through which the

inspection of the new via militaria led his Excellency and Suite - There are some fine designs of the Dargle Scenery.’

Another drawing in this series, Military road, was sold, Whyte’s, Dublin, 10th October 2011, lot 83.

€ 12,000 - 16,000