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Francis Wheatley , English, 1747-1801

Title

Fishermen beside the Salmon Leap, Leixlip, County Kildare

Date1782

MediumInk, watercolour and chalk on paper

Dimensions

55.8 x 47 cm

Signedlower right: FWheatley del 1782 [FW in monogram] (Irish Watercolours and Drawings in The National Gallery of Ireland, Adrian Le Harivel, ed., 1991)

Credit LinePurchased, 1914

Object numberNGI.2701

DescriptionFrancis Wheatley worked in Dublin between 1779 and 1783, supposedly to escape his creditors in London. He brought a more ambitious standard of painting to the art scene in Ireland and his views of rustic life brought him great favour in Dublin. He combined his experience as a topographical artist along with his enthusiasm for figure painting to create popular picturesque views. The dramatic rock formations and overhanging trees are finely rendered in pale tones of grey and green. This section of the Liffey, about ten miles west of Dublin, was frequently drawn by artists throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The construction of a dam in the last century, as part of the national hydro-electric network, has since changed the view entirely.
Exhibition HistoryIrish Watercolours and Drawings, McMullen Museum of Art Boston College, Boston, 4 October 1993 – 5 December 1993