Adam's IRISH OLD MASTERS 5th November 2024

44 35 JAMES REILY (C.1735-1778) Portrait of a Gentleman Signed with initials and dated ‘I Reily 1764’. Watercolour on ivory Oval, 3.9cm high, 3.3cm wide The young James Riley, together with Gustavus Hamilton and Daniel O’Keeffe worked as an apprentice for Samuel Dixon in his shop on Capel Street. Colouring in Dixon’s hallmark basso relievos of birds and flowers. On occasion, the three apprentices signed their work on the reverse with Riley simply signing ‘James’. In time, however, Riley’s success as a miniature painter enabled him ‘to have a fine house of his own in Grafton Street, Dublin’. The acquisition of the house in Grafton Street occurred sometime before 1765 when he gives this as his address at the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Artists in William Street. Earlier in 1760 when he married Jane Blackney of County Meath he was living in Capel Street close to Dixon’s shop. Even by this date he had clearly won a certain reputa- tion, being referred to in Sleator’s Public Gazeteer’s notifica - tion of the marriage as a ‘celebrated portrait painter’. € 500 - 700 36 JOHN COMERFORD (C.1770-1832) Portrait of a Lady Watercolour on ivory Oval, 6cm high, 5cm wide Comerford learnt to paint by copying portraits in Kilkenny Castle and practiced in his native city and also in Carrick-on Suir before moving to Dublin in 1797 for a short visit. Critical acclaim followed when he exhibited two miniatures at Allen’s in Dame Street in 1800: ‘our astonishment at his pictures must excuse this note of admiration’. Comerford thereafter enjoyed a successful career, initially combining oil portraiture with miniatures, before specialising in the latter. ‘For many years’, writes Strickland, ‘he was at the head of his profession in his particular field of art’ and this miniature of a young woman in neoclassical dress shows his stylish panache at capturing pose and character. € 1,000 - 1,500