FDA-D.536-2010
Parts
Object number
FDA-D.536-2010
Object type
Identification
Title
Palmerston Fair
Comments
In 1778 Francis Wheatley 'had the folly to engage in a intrigue' with Elizabeth Gresse, wife of the painter and royal drawing master John Alexander Gresse. As a result of this, and of financial embarrassment, Wheatly left London, borrowing money from the painter Benjamin West for a passage to Ireland. He took Mrs Gresse with him and, for several years, successfully passed her off as Mrs Wheatley. In Dublin he painted two very large group portraits in oils, 'A View of the College Green with a meeting of the Volunteers', a picture over ten feet wide (National Gallery of Ireland) and 'The Irish House of Commons' (Leeds City Art Gallery. Both pictures advertised his skills as a portrait painter in oils, and he did, as a result, obtain a number of portrait commissions. At the same time Wheatley made pen and ink and watercolour drawings of Irish scenery and country life, attending gypsy gatherings and rural fairs in search of picturesque subjects. Several of these country subjects provided material for watercolours that he repeated after his return to England at the end of 1783. The Eton collection includes a large 'Donnybrook Fair', this smaller 'Palmerston Fair' and another small 'Gypsy Encampment', all of which are packed with characterful figures. Palmerston Fair focuses on a striped tent in which a bare-footed young woman is serving tankards and glasses of beer from a barrel. Just outside the tent a family is gathered round a cooking pot over a fire; a woman is encouraging the flames with a large pair of bellows.
Another version of 'Palmerston Fair' initialled and dated 1782, is now in the Huntingdon Library and Art Collections, San Marino, California. The date indicates that it and the Eton watercolour were both made in Ireland.
Another version of 'Palmerston Fair' initialled and dated 1782, is now in the Huntingdon Library and Art Collections, San Marino, California. The date indicates that it and the Eton watercolour were both made in Ireland.
Other number
Pi 202-3 (with FDA-D.681-2012)
Description
Content (place)
Ireland
Dimensions
height (actual size): 159mm
width (actual size): 238mm
width (actual size): 238mm
Inscription
Signed 'F Wheatley/del.1782'(lower right)
Materials & techniques note
Pen and grey ink and watercolour
Production
Person
Wheatley, Francis, 1747 - 1801 (Artist)
History and association
Associated object
FDA-D.681-2012 (one of a pair)
Object history note
Provenance: Collection of Alan Pilkington; by whom presented/bequeathed to Eton College
Previous ownership
Pilkington, Alan, 1879 - 1973: A gift to Eton, 1969
