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David Wilkie , Scottish, 1785-1841

Title

Portrait of Daniel O'Connell as Governor of the National Bank

Date1838

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

250 x 160 cm

Credit LineOn loan from NatWest Group

Object numberL.14775

Label TextDaniel O’Connell, known as ‘The Liberator’, was a brilliant lawyer and member of the Westminster Parliament, who spent much of his life agitating for the repeal of the Act of Union between Britain and Ireland (passed in 1800), and for Catholic emancipation (achieved in 1829). He was also one of a number of prominent Irishmen to set up the National Bank of Ireland in 1835. This imposing painting, for which Wilkie was paid the considerable sum of three hundred guineas, was commissioned when O’Connell was Chairman of the National Bank, and Wilkie recorded that ‘Mr. O’Connell himself is pleased’.