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Joseph Patrick Haverty , Irish, 1794-1864

Title

Father Matthew Receiving a Repentant Pledge-Breaker

Date1846

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

107 x 137 cm

Credit LinePurchased, 1971

Object numberNGI.4035

DescriptionBorn in Co. Tipperary, Theobald Mathew (1790-1856) was ordained a Capuchin priest in 1813, and worked among the poor in Cork for more than twenty years. Disturbed by the level of drunkenness in the city, he began in 1838 a temperance crusade that subsequently developed into a national campaign. As a result, revenue from drink consumption dropped and some publicans went bankrupt, but crime levels fell. In 1849 he took his crusade to the United States of America where many Irish-Americans took the pledge. He also supported temperance work in the United Kingdom. He died in 1856. Haverty's painting, exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1846 as Advocates in a Good Cause, features Father Matthew receiving a repentant husband and father who has evidently fallen victim to alcohol. Haverty was a prolific exhibitor who enjoyed success as a portraitist in both London and Dublin.
Label TextBorn in Co. Tipperary in 1790, Theobald Matthew was ordained in 1814, and worked among the poor in Cork for more than twenty years. Disturbed by the drunkenness he encountered there, in 1838 he began a temperance crusade which developed into a mass national movement. In 1849 he took his campaign to the United States and also supported temperance work in England. In this painting, a repentant young man, attended by his wife and son, takes the pledge of temperance in front of the celebrated cleric. The portrait of Father Mathew was acclaimed by contemporary observers for its accuracy.