A view of the Eagle's Nest from the Black Valley with the castellated tower attached to Lord Brandon's cottage in the foreground, a party picnicking in the foreground beside the river Gearham

The youngest of eighteen children of the English portrait painter Sir William Beechey, Beechey entered the Navy as a cadet in 1821, remaining in the navy until he was invalided out of active service in 1835, when he joined the Marine Survey of Ireland, in which he worked until 1857. He seems to have learnt to paint under his father's tutelage and then at naval college under the Professor of Art John Christian Schetky. After his retirement Beechey lived for many years in Monkstown, Co. Dublin only leaving ireland in 1877. Beechey is best known for his seascapes many of which were painted when he was in the Navy surveying the river Shannon, Kerry, and off the the west coast of Ireland, which he often exhibited in London at the Royal Academy and the British Institution.

The present picture was catalogued as 'Killarney: Tower Lodge and Torc Mountain' when it was sold at Christie's in 1879. It is now thought far more likely that this view is of the Eagle's Nest from the Black Valley with the castellated tower attached to Lord Brandon's cottage in the background. The river which runs between the upper and lower lake Killarney is the Gearheam.

We are indebted to Mr & Mrs Donald Cameron for this identification.