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JOHN HENRY FOLEY RHA RA Sc (1818-1874)
A Portrait of Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness
Carved marble, 75cm tall
Signed and inscribed “J.H. Foley Sc, London 1867”, later inscribed on the socle “Baronet MP born Nov. 1798, died
1868”
Benjamin Lee Guinness (1798-1868)
The 3rd son of Arthur Guinness and Anne Lee, he joined the eponymous brewery at the age of 16, and he was
in sole control by 1858. He was an exemplary employer and modernised the plant. By creating a system of
commission agents his porter, the famous “Dublin black stuff” became a house-hold word world-wide, and the
Guinness family became immensely rich. A devout man with a sense of social duty he undertook serious charitable
works, continued by his sons, and restored St. Patricks cathedral at his own expense (some £150,000) by 1865.
In his public life he was Lord Mayor of Dublin 1851 and as a conservative unionist was M.P. for Dublin City 1865-
1868.
Even after having set-up numerous charitable trusts his personal estate of £1,100,000 was the largest probated will
seen in Ireland. His main beneficiary being his son Arthur Edward, later Lord Ardilaun who inherited St. Anne’s,
Clontarf and Ashford Castle, Co. Galway. The town house 80 St. Stephens Green was inherited by the younger
brother Edward Cecil to whom Lord Ardilaun sold his shares in the brewery and who in 1886 floated Guinness on
the stock market when subscriptions reached an unprecedented £100 million and more.
Provenance: Lady Ardilaun and by inheritence
J.H. Foley also executed in bronze the life size seated figure of Benjamin Guinness outside St. Patricks
€20,000 - 30,000
