James Malton, English, 1761-1803
Title: St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, South-East View from the Churchyard
Date: 1793
Medium: Ink and watercolour on paper
Dimensions:
52 x 76 cm
Signed: centre right: JAMES MALTON 1793 [?]
Credit Line: Purchased, 1974
Object Number: NGI.7714
DescriptionAt this date, St Patrick's Cathedral, already famously associated with Dean Jonathan Swift, was still essentially the structure built from 1225-54, with tower and spire of c.1400. Malton published a 1793 aquatint based on this watercolour, and, in the bound edition (1799) observed 'the annexed View is the most perfect the building admits'. It has the appearance of a peaceful Cathedral close, where a visiting cleric studies the choir and a man reclines on a tombstone (signed with Malton's name). Out of sight by the Cathedral entrance there were butchers' lean-to shops and a street market, which he also painted. The Lady Chapel (to the right) was rebuilt 1844-52 and, and by 1860, when Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness carried out a major restoration, walls were out of line, vaulting had collapsed and the exterior buttressing was in ruins.