Currently indexing
Joseph Samuel Halfpenny, Irish, 1787-1858
Title: Edward Hayes (1797-1864), Artist
Date: 1812
Medium: Watercolour on paper
Dimensions:
41 x 29.2 cm
Signed: lower left: J. S. Alpenny 1812
Credit Line: Purchased, 1883
Object Number: NGI.2002
DescriptionThis portrait of a boy sketching in a landscape was painted when the sitter was aged fifteen, studying drawing under Alpenny. It could be A Youth Sketching from Nature, which was exhibited at the fourth and final exhibition of the Society of Artists of the City of Dublin in 1813. The portrait is executed with a naïve charm, the technique being somewhat limited. It is almost like a studio photograph, with the thinly painted landscape acting as a backdrop. The wooded terrain suggests the scene may be in County Wicklow, an area popular with artists and tourists from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. A drawing dated c.1861 by the artist Edward Hayes: Doorway of Athassel Priory is also in the Gallery's collection.