IMPORTANT IRISH ART SALE

Wednesday 4th December 2013 12:00am

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Daniel Maclise RA RHA (1806-1870) A Figure of Erin Oil on canvas, 102 x 76cm (40 x 30'') Signed and inscribed '' Caroline Norton, a Study for Justice in the House of Lords'' Provenance : Thought...

Daniel Maclise RA RHA (1806-1870) A Figure of Erin Oil on canvas, 102 x 76cm (40 x 30'') Signed and inscribed '' Caroline Norton, a Study for Justice in the House of Lords'' Provenance : Thought to have been acquired by the 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava ,Caroline Norton was the younger sister of his mother Helen Blackwood , Baroness Dufferin and Clandeboye. The picture remained at Clandeboye until the 1960's when there was a sale there and it was acquired by Mariga Guinness (Princess Marie Gabrielle of Urach) and thence by descent to the current owner, her son, Patrick Guinness. Exhibited: exhibited at the NPG London in 1972; ''Conquering England: Ireland in Victorian London'', The National Portrait Gallery London, March/June 2005; ''Daniel Maclise: Romancing the Past'', The Crawford Gallery, Cork, Oct 2008 - Feb 2009 Literature: '' A Scandalous Woman: The Story of Caroline Norton'' by Alan Chedzoy Allison and Busby London 1992; ''Danile Maclise: Irish Artist in Victorian London'' by Nancy Weston, Four Courts Press 2001; ''Conquering England: Ireland in Victorian London'' 2005 by Fintan Cullen and R.F. Foster; and ''Daniel Maclise 1806-1870: Romancing the Past'', ed. Peter Murray 2008, p.64, full page illustration p.65 This picture is almost certainly the same as that described by Maclise in his manuscript autobiography as A Figure of Erin, representing Ireland as a female figure with a harp. The harp here is certainly Irish and has similarities to that depicted in the oil of Strongbow and Aoife (National Gallery Ireland). Caroline Norton also had an Irish connection, being a granddaughter of the playwright Richard Brindsley Sheridan. She was one of three sisters, collectively referred to as the 'Three Graces' due to their combined beauty and accomplishments. Caroline's eldest sister, Helen, married Price Blackwood, the 4th Baron Dufferin and Clandeboye. Through her, Caroline became the aunt of Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava who was to become the 3rd Govenor General of Canada,8th Viceroy of India and was the British Ambassador to Russia,Ottoman Empire, Italy and France during his long and successful diplomatic career. Helen's Bay in Co. Down and Helen's Tower (which inspired poems by both Tennyson and Browning) on the Clandeboye estate were named after Caroline's sister and this portrait of her was to remain at Clandeboye for nearly 100 years. However Caroline was, for many, a controversial and even scandalous figure, and her selection to model as the personification of Justice was a daring choice and an untypically direct political statement by Maclise. Although well connected and well regarded in literary and social circles, Norton had no independent means. When she separated from her abusive husband he made her the subject of a scandal involving 'criminal conversation' with the then Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, and although cleared by the court, she found her reputation badly damaged and Melbournes government collapsed. Norton prevented Caroline from seeing her three sons, and blocked her from receiving a divorce. According to English law in 1836, children were the legal property of their father, and there was little Caroline could do to regain custody. She began campaigning for changes in the law and wrote a series of pamphlets, starting with 'The Natural Claim of a Mother to the Custody of her Children as affected by the Common Law Rights of the Father' which influenced parliament to pass the Infant Custody Bill in 1839, establishing some basic legal rights for mothers. For the first time in history, a woman had openly challenged this law that discriminated against women. Tragically in 1842 her eight year old son died as a result of non-lethal injuries sustained during a riding accident. After this her estranged husband eventually allowed her to see her other two sons. Maclise and his friends supported her through this time and, after more difficulties with her estranged husband, another campaign in favour of what became the Married Woman's Property and Divorce Bill in 1857. This Bill originated in the House of Lords, the location of the fresco 'The Spirit of Justice' containing her likeness. Before and throughout these years she wrote long poems, plays, novels and several poems with a socialist slant. She was also editor of La Belle Assemblée and Court Magazine. One critic described her as the ''Byron of Modern Poetesses''. In the fresco the harp is replaced by the traditional scales of justice while the paper in her left hand may be 'the charter of liberty', identified by Maclise as held by the 'free citizen' beside the liberated Negro slave in the bottom right corner. Maclise describes Justice as flanked by 'the angels of mercy and retribution' and below them 'the judges lay and ecclesiastical' - the latter emphasising the role of the House of Lords as the highest court of appeal in the British system. We would like to thank Tom Dunne, whose research formed the basis of this note.

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Hammer Price: Unsold

Estimate EUR : €120,000 - €160,000

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