Daniel Maclise, Irish, 1806-1870
Title: Merry Christmas in the Baron's Hall
Date: 1838
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
183 x 366 cm
Signed: lower left: D. Maclise 1838
Credit Line: Purchased, 1872
Object Number: NGI.156
ProvenancePurchased, Palmer & Co., 1870; purchased, Doyle, 1872; possibly collection Benjamin Gibson of Athol House; purchased, Christie's, London, 1 June 1872
Exhibition HistoryRoyal Academy of Arts, London, 1838
Exposition Universelle de 1855, Paris, 1855
Jubilee Exhibition, Manchester, 1887 Daniel Maclise 1806 - 1870, National Portrait Gallery, London; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1972
Daniel Maclise (1806-1870), Romancing the Past, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 24 October 2008 - 14 February 2009
Exposition Universelle de 1855, Paris, 1855
Jubilee Exhibition, Manchester, 1887 Daniel Maclise 1806 - 1870, National Portrait Gallery, London; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1972
Daniel Maclise (1806-1870), Romancing the Past, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 24 October 2008 - 14 February 2009
Label TextMaclise often drew inspiration from literary sources, and the subject of this painting was inspired by the description of a Christmas feast in Walter Scott’s epic poem, Marmion (1808). The ambitious oil painting includes over one hundred figures, arranged in a series of animated groups. In the foreground, a colourful group play a parlour game called Hunt the Slipper, while in the background the eponymous baron presides over the festivities.