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Lot Essay
Frederick Burton was born on 8 April 1816 at Clifden House, Corofin, in Co. Clare, Ireland. The Burtons could trace their lineage back to the 15th Century, and Frederick's father, Samuel Frederick Burton, was an amateur landscape painter of independent means. In 1826 the family moved to Dublin, where Frederick was trained as an artist by the Brocas brothers and the landscape painter and antiquary George Petrie. His dual interest in the practice of art and art-historical scholarship would seem to owe much to the influence of Petrie, who remained a lifelong friend. By 1837, at the age of twenty-one, he was elected an associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy, graduating to full membership two years later. His handsome features, keen intelligence and natural distinction of manner gave him ready access to Dublin society and local intellectual circles. Many sat to him for portraits and miniatures, although his best-known early portraits were two likenesses of the English actress Helen Faucit, exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1849. Meanwhile he was experimenting with landscape, historical subjects, and genre. Some of his genre scenes, such as The Aran Fisherman's Drowned Child and A Connaught Toilet, became well. known through engravings. His early work was in watercolour which remained his favourite medium.
George Petrie encouraged Burton's interest in Irish history, legends and folk life, often travelling with him on sketching tours. Between 1838 and 1840 they sketched around Connemara; the remote landscape, local people and traditions fascinated Burton. In a letter to he wrote of the 'amethystine glow- that filled the whole atmosphere and tinged the silvery rocks of Maam Turk with ineffable loveliness'. During this time he produced numerous sketches for what would become Blind Girl at a Holy Well, painted in 1839.
The 1830s proved a difficult period for the arts in Ireland. In 1840, in an effort to invigorate the arts, The Royal Irish Art Union was founded and committee was appointed by subscribers to select and purchase works at the annual Royal Hibernian Academy exhibition. Fifty-one drawings and paintings were bought and distributed amongst subscribers by lottery. A Blind Girl at a Holy Well- a scene in the West of Ireland was the first in a short series chosen by the Art Union to be engraved. The picture became the most popular engraved image of its time and made the Blind Girl an icon of 19th Century Irish art.
The Dublin Review of that year describes the scene 'The blind girl is led by the mother and sister over the mist-clad mountain to the well, whose sacred waters they pray may restore her sight. The sympathy and love with which the mother looks round to watch the effect of her prayers, gives the key to this subject, the revelation of a mother's love'. Burton's emotive subject was most probably based around a poem by John Keegan (1809-1849) 'The Dark Girl at the Holy Well', in which blindness could be cured by divine intervention.
Burton was inspired by the Old Masters, particularly Raphael whose compositions can be linked to the Blind Girl. He skilfully combines the accurate details of local costume and the remote and rugged landscape with the device of an Old Master composition, graceful models with refined features, and the sense of a sacred, holy place, thereby successfully elevating the scene to a work of high art. Burton often used friends and family as models for his figures; it is possible that the central figure of the Blind Girl was in fact George Petrie's eldest daughter, Maryanne.
Throughout his life, Burton maintained his scholarly interests, which embraced not only the history of European painting but literature, music, and anything to do with Irish antiquities. He was involved with a number of organisations promoting research on these subjects, helping to found the Archaeological Society of Ireland and becoming a member of the London Society of Antiquaries in 1863. He also served on the council of the Royal Irish Academy, the committee of St Patrick's Society, and the Zoological Society.
In 1874, in recognition of his art-historical eminence, Burton was appointed Director of the National Gallery in London. He succeeded Sir William Boxall, who in turn had succeeded Eastlake, and he himself was to be followed by Sir Edward John Poynter in 1894. During his twenty-year tenure, Burton's knowledge and connoiseurship were fully employed. The Gallery acquired no fewer than 450 pictures, including some of its most familiar and best-loved masterpieces, and serious progress was made on the arrangement, classification and cataloguing of the entire collection. Burton devoted himself to the task, abandoning his brushes entirely, nor did he return to the practice of painting on his retirement. He was knighted in 1884. Although his later career had unfolded in London, he was buried beside his parents in Mount Jerome cemetary, Dublin. Despite his eminence and success in London, Burton always kept up with his old friends from his days in Dublin and is recorded as saying to Lady Gregory 'my best joys have been connected with Ireland'.
Although Burton's curtailed artistic career means that his work is rare Christie's has had a distinguished record of handling his watercolours in recent years. The Child Miranda, an enchanting study of 1864 (fig.2), was sold on 11 November 1999 for the record price of £265,500, The Wife of Hassan Aga, a slightly earlier example of 1862, followed on 19 May 2000, and Weary, which appeared at the Old Water-Colour Society in 1867, on 17 May 2001.
Today one of the most enduringly popular images in the National Gallery in Dublin remains Burton's watercolour of Hellellil and Hildebrand- meeting on the turret stairs.
George Petrie encouraged Burton's interest in Irish history, legends and folk life, often travelling with him on sketching tours. Between 1838 and 1840 they sketched around Connemara; the remote landscape, local people and traditions fascinated Burton. In a letter to he wrote of the 'amethystine glow- that filled the whole atmosphere and tinged the silvery rocks of Maam Turk with ineffable loveliness'. During this time he produced numerous sketches for what would become Blind Girl at a Holy Well, painted in 1839.
The 1830s proved a difficult period for the arts in Ireland. In 1840, in an effort to invigorate the arts, The Royal Irish Art Union was founded and committee was appointed by subscribers to select and purchase works at the annual Royal Hibernian Academy exhibition. Fifty-one drawings and paintings were bought and distributed amongst subscribers by lottery. A Blind Girl at a Holy Well- a scene in the West of Ireland was the first in a short series chosen by the Art Union to be engraved. The picture became the most popular engraved image of its time and made the Blind Girl an icon of 19th Century Irish art.
The Dublin Review of that year describes the scene 'The blind girl is led by the mother and sister over the mist-clad mountain to the well, whose sacred waters they pray may restore her sight. The sympathy and love with which the mother looks round to watch the effect of her prayers, gives the key to this subject, the revelation of a mother's love'. Burton's emotive subject was most probably based around a poem by John Keegan (1809-1849) 'The Dark Girl at the Holy Well', in which blindness could be cured by divine intervention.
Burton was inspired by the Old Masters, particularly Raphael whose compositions can be linked to the Blind Girl. He skilfully combines the accurate details of local costume and the remote and rugged landscape with the device of an Old Master composition, graceful models with refined features, and the sense of a sacred, holy place, thereby successfully elevating the scene to a work of high art. Burton often used friends and family as models for his figures; it is possible that the central figure of the Blind Girl was in fact George Petrie's eldest daughter, Maryanne.
Throughout his life, Burton maintained his scholarly interests, which embraced not only the history of European painting but literature, music, and anything to do with Irish antiquities. He was involved with a number of organisations promoting research on these subjects, helping to found the Archaeological Society of Ireland and becoming a member of the London Society of Antiquaries in 1863. He also served on the council of the Royal Irish Academy, the committee of St Patrick's Society, and the Zoological Society.
In 1874, in recognition of his art-historical eminence, Burton was appointed Director of the National Gallery in London. He succeeded Sir William Boxall, who in turn had succeeded Eastlake, and he himself was to be followed by Sir Edward John Poynter in 1894. During his twenty-year tenure, Burton's knowledge and connoiseurship were fully employed. The Gallery acquired no fewer than 450 pictures, including some of its most familiar and best-loved masterpieces, and serious progress was made on the arrangement, classification and cataloguing of the entire collection. Burton devoted himself to the task, abandoning his brushes entirely, nor did he return to the practice of painting on his retirement. He was knighted in 1884. Although his later career had unfolded in London, he was buried beside his parents in Mount Jerome cemetary, Dublin. Despite his eminence and success in London, Burton always kept up with his old friends from his days in Dublin and is recorded as saying to Lady Gregory 'my best joys have been connected with Ireland'.
Although Burton's curtailed artistic career means that his work is rare Christie's has had a distinguished record of handling his watercolours in recent years. The Child Miranda, an enchanting study of 1864 (fig.2), was sold on 11 November 1999 for the record price of £265,500, The Wife of Hassan Aga, a slightly earlier example of 1862, followed on 19 May 2000, and Weary, which appeared at the Old Water-Colour Society in 1867, on 17 May 2001.
Today one of the most enduringly popular images in the National Gallery in Dublin remains Burton's watercolour of Hellellil and Hildebrand- meeting on the turret stairs.