The Artist's Son
Artist
Martin Archer Shee
(Irish, 1769-1850)
CultureIrish
Dateca. 1820
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 39 x 33 1/2 in. (99.1 x 85.1 cm)
Overall, Frame: 39 x 33 1/2 in. (99.1 x 85.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.672
Collections
Not on view
DescriptionA young boy in a red outfit with a yellow tie. He rests with his hand on the back of his head. Label TextMartin Archer Shee Irish (1769-1850) The Artist's Son, ca. 1820 Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm) Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.672 Little-known today, the Dublin-born Martin Archer Shee achieved considerable fame as a society portraitist in early nineteenth-century London. Shee was especially adept at painting children, as seen in his charming portrayal of his third and youngest son William, then ten years old. Shee painted at least two replicas of the portrait-the Chrysler's painting and another that is today in the collection of the Royal Academy, London (see illustration). English portraiture in the first half of the nineteenth century was dominated by the paintings of Sir Thomas Lawrence. Though Shee tried to emulate Lawrence's popular Romantic style, he could not match his technical brilliance or fluent, painterly touch. Nevertheless, at Lawrence's sudden death in 1830, Shee succeeded him as president of the Royal Academy and crowned his career eight years later with an official portrait of Queen Victoria. ProvenanceRight Honorable Francis T. Baring, England, 1843; Colnaghi, London, England; Anonymous Private Collection, New York; John Levy Galleries, New York, 1948; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 1948-1958; Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, 1958-1971; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition HistoryThe British Institution, London, England, 1843. (Lent by the Right Honorable Francis T. Baring, M.P.) Inaugural Exhibition, Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., 1958. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. "Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690-1840," The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, March 17 - June 21, 2015.Published ReferencesAlgernon Graves, _A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912_ II (London, England, 1912), 651. Sir Walter Armstrong, _Lawrence_, (London: Methuen, 1913), 112. W. Strickland, _A Dictionary of Irish Artists_ II (Dublin-London, 1913), 345. Bertina S. Manning, _Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition_, exh. cat., Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Ma., July, 1958, 21, 75. William Laffan and Christopher Monkhouse, eds., _Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690-1840 (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago with Yale University Press, 2015) 57, fig. 25.
ca. 1615
