George Petrie, Irish, 1790-1866
Title: View of Glendalough
Date: 1822
Medium: Watercolour and graphite on paper
Dimensions:
20.5 x 28.5 cm
Credit Line: Purchased, 2022
Object Number: NGI.2022.39
DescriptionThis delicately drawn image depicts a view of Glendalough, or The Valley of the Seven Churches, as it was known in earlier times. Accurately drawn in graphite with subtle washes of watercolour, it was made for G.N. Wright’s A Guide to the County of Wicklow, 1822, engraved by Thomas Benson. It shows the monastic site with the Lower Lake behind and the great sides of the valley in the distance. There is some evidence of fading, normal in a watercolour of this age. However, the palette is similar to other watercolours in the NGI collection (see NGI 2367 below) and the image is skilfully drawn and very readable. The view looks west into the valley with the monastic buildings in the middle ground dwarfed by the high hills of Derrybawn, the Spinc, Lugduff and Camaderry. The landscape is more or less tree-less, and looks different from the heavily forested setting of today.
ProvenanceStokes Family; Maurice Dear, Dealer in Watercolours, Southampton, Purchased in 2009 by previous owner at RDS Antiques Fair, where Maurice Dear had a stall; Purchased, 2022
Inscriptionlower right: Geo. Petrie Delt 1822