George Petrie
, Irish, 1790-1866
Title
Saint Laurence's Gate, Drogheda, County LouthDate1819
MediumGraphite, ink and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
17.8 x 23.4 cm
Signedlower left: Geo Petrie 1819
Credit LineBequeathed, Margaret McNair Stokes, 1900
Object numberNGI.2374
DescriptionThe 13th century St Laurence's Gate and Barbican at Drogheda is the finest surviving in Ireland. It is practically all that remains of the defences razed during the brutal siege by Oliver Cromwell in 1649, when 2000 were killed and other transported to Bermuda. Petrie also shows two lines of thatched cabins on the approaching road, long since gone and glimpses of the houses then standing within the city. It was engraved for 'Cromwell's Excursions through Ireland' (1820-21), when George Petrie earned his living as a guidebook illustrator, before he became a celebrated antiquarian and the first watercolourist to be elected President of the Royal hibernian Academy.Exhibition HistoryOidhreacht: Transforming Tradition, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, 13 June 2019 - 14 September 2019