Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 1st June 2022

34 A rare combination of evidence from different sources combines to permit a degree of precision in dating of the pair of Dublin Bay views and allows us to identify Ash- ford’s patron here. A firm terminus ante quem is provided by the fact that the pictures were auctioned at Christie’s in London on 6 March 1776 as [William] Ashford, ‘Two Views of the Bay of Dublin’. 46 Approximately this date could also be reached by internal evidence alone. Although the catalogue does not survive for the Society of Artists’ 1775 exhibition, we know that one of the Ashford’s exhibits that year was a View of Gibraltar , as it was singled out in a review of the show in the Hibernian Journal . 47 There are compelling stylistic and technical similarities between the Gibraltar view (Fig 14), which survives in a private collec- tion, and the present pair of paintings, noticeable, for ex- ample, in the handling of the choppy waves, which suggest that the two works are closely contemporaneous. 48 More specifically, a ship, its sails full of the wind, is repeated almost identically in the view of Gibraltar and the view of Dublin Bay looking north (Fig. 15). Presumably Ashford painted both from the same preparatory drawing. Like Thomas Roberts, Ashford clearly had a winning man- ner and he charmed his often noble clients with several of whom he established close friendships. As James Gandon’s son noted ‘ he was much noticed by all the distinguished lovers and encouragers of the fine arts of the day’. 49 A close relation- ship between Ashford and one of his aristocratic Irish pa- trons seems to explain the genesis of the present works. In an annotated catalogue in Christie’s archives listing the sellers in the March 1776 sale the vendor of the pair of Dublin Bay views is listed as Lord Dart[rey], referring to WILLIAM ASHFORD AND HIS PATRON Fig. 14 William Ashford (1746-1824) A view of Gibraltar (exhibited 1775) Private collection