ADAM'S IRISH OLD MASTERS 14 MAY 2026

26 19 FRANCIS WHEATLEY RA (1747-1801) Country Girl with Sickle and Keg (i) Country Girl by a Stile (ii) A pair, watercolour, 28 x 20.5cm Signed, and signed with monogram and dated 1795 Provenance: Leger Galleries, London Exhibited: London, Leger Galleries, English Watercol- ours, 1967, No. 26 € 3,000 - 5,000 One of her most notable, and unusual, works was The Flowers of Shakespeare commissioned by the architect Sir John Soane (1753-1837), which included a bust of the bard surrounded by all the flowers mentioned in his plays. Among her pupils was Princess Sophia of Gloucester. Clara’s husband, Francis Wheatley has an im- portance for art in Ireland far greater than the relative brevity of his visit here might suggest. In his paintings of Henry Grattan addressing the Irish House of Commons and the Volunteers as- sembling on College Green he created two iconic images of the Georgian period. He also contrib- uted to Thomas Milton’s topographical enterprise, involved himself in the voguish pursuit of anti- quarianism and was among the artists involved in James Woodmason’s attempt to encourage Irish history painting. Wheatley was born in London, he entered the drawing school run by William Shipley and may also have studied briefly with the Welsh landscape painter Richard Wilson before entering the School of the Royal Academy as one its first pupils in November 1769 and, the following year, was elected to membership of the Society of Art- ists. Having made a brief visit to Ireland in 1767, Wheatley returned in the summer of 1779, fleeing his creditors and a lawsuit brought by his fellow artist John Alexander Gresse, with whose wife he had eloped. He was fortunate in his timing, James The artist’s wife, Clara Maria, née Leigh (c. 1767-1838), whom he married at some point before 1788, inspired some of Wheatley’s most charming works including the present pair of watercolours dating from 1795, in which Clara appears in the guise of pretty – and suspiciously soignée – agricultural workers. As Mary Webster wrote ‘There is a notably French influence in the delicate, politely erotic sensibility to feminine charm in these pictures of Mrs Wheatley’ (Francis Wheatley, 1970, p. 103). As well as modelling for her husband, Clara was a highly accomplished artist in her own right, excelling in miniatures and botanical art.