FDA-D.537-2010
Parts
Object number
FDA-D.537-2010
Object type
Identification
Title
Donnybrook Fair
Pilkington
Pilkington
Title Type
assigned by cataloguer
collection
collection
Comments
'Wheatley fled to Ireland in 1779 with the wife of the painted John Alexander Gresse. He returned to London in 1783 and the following year exhibited a painting titled 'Part of Donnybrook Fair, Ireland' at the Royal Academy. At a sale of paintings and drawings held the same year, 1784, and at a further sale in 1785, he offered pairs of watercolours entitled 'Donnybrook Fair' and 'Palmerston Fair'. The fairs took place in the vicinity of Dublin, but no precise location has been identified.
Wheatley's fair subjects were undoubtedly popular; numerous variants dated from 1782 to 1794 are to be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Yale Centre for British Art and the Huntington Art Gallery. A pair of smaller scenes, dates 1782, is also in the Eton College Collection. The incidental vignette of rustic courtship in the foreground of the larger Eton view suggests a tendency to treat these subjects almost as sentimental genre screens, or as an object of curiosity sanitised for the metropolitan audience (the couple is omitted in a closely related variant in the Matsukata Collection, Japan). The misshapen hats, baggy clothes and makeshift encampment do however show that Wheatley was also concerned to convey something of the real poverty of the Irish peasantry.'
[Source: Wilcox, T., 'A Genius for Watercolour: Watercolours from the Eton College Collection', Christie's, London, 2003, p.37, catalogue number 30]
Wheatley's fair subjects were undoubtedly popular; numerous variants dated from 1782 to 1794 are to be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Yale Centre for British Art and the Huntington Art Gallery. A pair of smaller scenes, dates 1782, is also in the Eton College Collection. The incidental vignette of rustic courtship in the foreground of the larger Eton view suggests a tendency to treat these subjects almost as sentimental genre screens, or as an object of curiosity sanitised for the metropolitan audience (the couple is omitted in a closely related variant in the Matsukata Collection, Japan). The misshapen hats, baggy clothes and makeshift encampment do however show that Wheatley was also concerned to convey something of the real poverty of the Irish peasantry.'
[Source: Wilcox, T., 'A Genius for Watercolour: Watercolours from the Eton College Collection', Christie's, London, 2003, p.37, catalogue number 30]
Other number
pi 205
Description
Dimensions
height (actual size): 405mm
width (actual size): 604.7mm
width (actual size): 604.7mm
Inscription
Signed and dated 'F. Wheatley 1794' (lower centre)
Materials & techniques note
Pencil, pen & grey ink, and watercolour
Production
Person
Wheatley, Francis, 1747 - 1801 (Artist)
Date
1794
History and association
Object history note
Provenance: Collection of Alan Pilkington; by whom presented/bequeathed to Eton College
Exhibited: 'A Genius for Watercolour', Christie’s, London, 6 to 24 January 2003, catalogue number 30; 'Watercolours from the Eton College Collections', Verey Gallery, Eton College, 24 November 2018 to 24 February 2019
Exhibited: 'A Genius for Watercolour', Christie’s, London, 6 to 24 January 2003, catalogue number 30; 'Watercolours from the Eton College Collections', Verey Gallery, Eton College, 24 November 2018 to 24 February 2019
Previous ownership
Pilkington, Alan, 1879 - 1973: Bequeathed by Alan Pilkington to Eton 1973
Hutchinson, W.
Brockett, Lord (Lord)
Hutchinson, W.
Brockett, Lord (Lord)
References
• Christie's, A Genius for Watercolour; Watercolours from the Eton College Collection, exhibition catalogue, 2003 (No. 30, p. 37)
• Webster, M., Francis Wheatley, London, 1970 (p. 49, fig. 55)
• Pilkington, A., Loan exhibition of early English watercolours, drawings by Old Masters, etchings & engravings from the collection of Alan D. Pilkington: in aid of the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association, Colnaghi & Co, London, 1958 (no. 32)
• Webster, M., Francis Wheatley, London, 1970 (p. 49, fig. 55)
• Pilkington, A., Loan exhibition of early English watercolours, drawings by Old Masters, etchings & engravings from the collection of Alan D. Pilkington: in aid of the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association, Colnaghi & Co, London, 1958 (no. 32)
