Adam's IRISH OLD MASTERS 5th November 2024

Irish Old Masters| 5 November 2024 www.adams.ie 73 Barret moved with some degree of social proximity with his grand patrons, appearing, for example, in a letter of 7 December 1762 from Emily FitzGerald at Castletown, her sister’s house in Kildare, where his presence is noted in the company of Lord Power- scourt. In the same year that he was working at Cas - tletown, Barret was actively engaged in painting Pow - erscourt’s famous County Wicklow demesne. Several views survive, including two of the great house, built to designs by Richard Castle, and at least four of the famous waterfall. Views of Powerscourt were among the works Barret showed at the Society of Artists in his first London exhibition in 1764. Barret had left for Lon - don at some point in 1762. By September of that year, an auction was held ‘of the furniture of Mr. George Bar - ret’s house in Leeson Street, near Donnybrook corner at Stephen’s Green’, rather appropriately just across the Green from where this work will be auctioned. Barret thrived in London, winning honours, patronage from the great of Georgian England, and, occasion - ally, wealth too. However, it is for his Irish landscapes such as the present work, done when he was a young man in Dublin that his art is most admired today. We thank Dr Logan Morse, who has recently completed a PhD on George Barret, for her assistance in compiling this catalogue entry.