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Thomas Roberts , Irish, 1748-1777

Title

A View in Lucan House Demesne

Datec.1771

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

60.6 x 99.6 cm

Credit LinePurchased, 1983 (Shaw Fund)

Object numberNGI.4466

ProvenanceCommissioned together with three paintings by Agmondisham Vesey of Lucan House; by desent to Captain R. St John Colthurst; Auction, 29 September 1925, Lucan House Sale, lot 115; purchased, Wright family, County Monaghan; purchased, Private Collection, 1983 (the set of four NGI. 4463-4466) Exhibition HistoryAcquisitions 1982-83, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1983

Label TextRoberts’s depictions of Lucan were not fanciful, idealised views of the demesne, but the product of keen observation. They tallied with written accounts, including Arthur Young’s, which described the demesne in 1776 as follows: ‘the wood on the river, with walks through it, is exceedingly beautiful. The character of the place is that of sequestered shade…The river is of a character perfectly suited to the rest of the scenery, in some places breaking over rocks; in others silent, under the thick shade of spreading wood’.