Title: Catherine Jane Prendergast (née Annesley) (1811-1839)
Date: 1845
Medium: Marble
Signed: J.H. FOLEY. Sc./LONDON 1845
Credit Line: Presented, Major B.R. Cooper, the sitter's great-grandson, 1927
Object Number: NGI.8045
ProvenancePresented, Major Bryan Cooper, 1927
Exhibition HistoryRoyal Academy of Arts, London, 1845
Irish Portraits 1660-1860, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 14 August - 14 October 1969; National Portrait Gallery, London, 30 October 1969 - 4 January 1970; Ulster Museum, Belfast, 28 January - 9 March 1970
Label TextPrendergast lived in Madras, where she had five children with her husband Guy Lushington Prendergast, an employee in the Civil Service. Following her untimely death, Catherine’s husband visited London, where he commissioned Foley to produce this bust. During the Victorian period it was not unusual for bereaved families to commission posthumous sculptures of their loved ones. Artists would often work from relatives’ descriptions and from sketches, miniatures or silhouettes made during their subject’s life.
InscriptionCATHERINE. JANE. PRENDERGAST