Portrait of Richard Sainthill

Daniel Maclise, 1806-1870

Signed,'(DA)N(IEL) McLISE'

Pencil on paper

18 X 14 inches, 46 X 36 centimetres

Peter Nahum Ltd, London has most generously given its permission to use in the Victorian Web information, images, and text from its catalogues. The copyright on text and images from their catalogues remains, of course, with Peter Nahum Ltd. Readers should consult the website of Peter Nahum at the Leicester Galleries to obtain information about recent exhibitions and to order their catalogues. [GPL]

Commentary by Hilary Morgan

Richard Sainthill (1787-1870) was a distinguished Irish antiquarian and numismatist and Maclise's most important early patron.' Saintbill probably first met him in 1821 when Maclise returned to Cork from London. Sainthill saw a drawing by the sixteen year old artist in the shop of McLise Senior and encouraged him to take lessons, commissionied portraits of his family and gave him the use of a room in his own house for a studio. But his influence on Maclise was even deeper; as Richard Ormond wrote: 'in a real sense he completed his education and gave him an abiding interest in Irish archaeology, history and folklore.'

These shared interests are apparent in the present drawing. Maclise wrote with affection of Sainthill, his 'antiquarian knowledge and various literary attainments eminently qualified him for inspiring a youth with a true regard and attachment even where both did not already exist - his (i.e. Maclise's) attention was now directed to, medalling, heraldry and the like congenial tastes.' The 1820s and 1830s saw a flowering of interest in antiquarianism and genealogy throughout Europe. Maclise's image is a visible token of the new interest in the past, as Sainthill reveals his ancestry by posing in front of the tomb of 'Reginaldus de Swenthall' who died in 1320 and by the tablet to 'Elizabeth, daughter of Rd Sainthill' who died in 1791. It also projects a 'Romantic' atmosphere with its shadowed woodlands, ivy-grown urn and interest in the relics of death.

Another drawing by Maclise of Sainthill (1830), as lithographed by R J Lane in 1852 was included in the 1970 National Portrait Gallery exhibition. The artist abandoned McLise as a spelling of his surname in 1835.

References

Maclise, Daniel. Manuscript autobiography. London: The Library, Royal Academy of Arts.

Morgan, Hilary, and Peter Nahum. Burne-Jones, the Pre-Raphaelites, and Their Century. London: Peter Nahum, 1989. Catalogue number 5.

National Portrait Gallery. Daniel Maclise 1806-1870. (catalogue of the exhibition by Richard Ormond). London, 1970. Number 7.

References

A Century of Master Drawings, Watercolours, and Works in Egg Tempera. London: Peter Nahum, nd. Plate number 7.

Last modified 16 September 2001