George Petrie

George Petrie, the renowned antiquarian, artist, writer and collector was born in Dublin in the first day of January 1790. As a young man he made sketching tours in Wicklow and Wales between. In the early nineteenth century guidebooks were in great demand and the majority published during this period featured engravings after Petrie’s graceful and accurate topographical drawings. In 1828 he became a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, and in 1856 was elected President. Between 1835 and 1846 he was Head of the Topographical Department of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. Petrie was at the centre of a learned and artistic circle in Dublin, which included Frederic William Burton, Sir William Wilde and John O’Donovan, linguist on the Ordnance Survey. He numbered the Stokes family among his close friends. Dr William Stokes, an eminent medical doctor wrote his biography. William Stokes’s daughter Margaret, the archaeologist and art historian Margaret Stokes, worked closely with Petrie on his antiquarian work and donated much of his work to the NGI. A great mentor and friend to younger artists, Petrie died in his native city in 1866 aged 76.