Share

License image

Attributed to Strickland Lowry , English, 1737-c.1785

Title

An Interior with Members of a Family

Date1770s

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

63.4 x 75.8 cm

Credit LinePurchased, 1978 (Shaw Fund)

Object numberNGI.4304

DescriptionThis conversation piece (a relatively informal group portrait), has frustrated scholars for many years as the family represented in it have not been identified with certainty. Given the provenance of the picture, however, they are most likely members of the Corbally family or relatives by marriage. The painting is an invaluable record of late eighteenth-century Irish interior decoration. The narrowness of the room and the window openings indicate that the interior belongs to an urban house. Confident and finely dressed, the family present themselves in a room that stands as a testament to their affluence and modishness. Features such as the key-hole grate, the door panelling, the gilded pier-glass, the chimney breast and the curtains were all highly fashionable in Ireland in the 1770s. The wallpaper, which bears an architectural pattern, and the Smyrna carpet, from Izmir in Turkey, were similarly expensive and on trend. Firescreens, such as the one visible in the background, were employed to shield women’s lead-based make-up, which was prone to running. Having spent most of his early life in his native Cumbria, Lowry first came to Ireland around 1762. He returned on several occasions, working for patrons in the east of the country.

Mmarch 2016
ProvenanceLady Corbally, Rathbeale Hall, Swords; Christie's, 24 June, 1977, lot 79; purchased, Private Collection, London, 1978 Label TextThis conversation piece has intrigued scholars for many years as the family represented in it have not been identified with certainty. The painting is an invaluable record of late eighteenth-century Irish interior decoration. Confident and finely dressed, the family present themselves in a room in an urban house that stands as a testament to their affluence and modishness. Features such as the key-hole grate, the door panelling, the gilded pier-glass, the chimney breast and the curtains were all highly fashionable in Ireland in the 1770s, as were the wallpaper and carpet.