Frederic William Burton
Frederic William Burton | |
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County Wicklow, Ireland | |
Died | 16 March 1900 London |
Sir Frederic William Burton
Burton's best-known watercolours, The Aran Fisherman's Drowned Child (1841) and The Meeting on the Turret Stairs (1864; also known as Hellelil and Hildebrand) are in the National Gallery of Ireland. Meeting on the Turret Stairs was voted by the Irish public as Ireland's favourite painting in 2012 from among 10 works shortlisted by critics.[1]
Biography
He was born in County Wicklow and taken by his parents to live in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland at the age of six. He was the third son of Samuel Frederick Burton and his wife, Hanna Mallett.[2]
The old Burton seat was Clifden House, Corofin, County Clare, which was built around the middle of the eighteenth century. The artist's grandparents were Major Edward William Burton, Clifden, who was High Sheriff of Clare in 1799, and his wife, Jane Blood of the nearby townland of Roxton, County Clare.[3]
Artistic career
Educated in
Burton worked with
He was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1855, and a full member in the following year. He resigned in 1870, and was reelected as an honorary member in 1886. A
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The Aran Fisherman's Drowned Child, 1841, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
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Dreams, 1863
Directorship of the National Gallery
In 1874 Burton was appointed director of the
During the twenty years that he held this post he was responsible for many important purchases, among them Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks, Raphael's Ansidei Madonna, Anthony van Dyck's Equestrian portrait of Charles I, Hans Holbein the Younger's Ambassadors, and the Admiral Pulido Pareja, by Diego Velázquez (this subsequently attributed to Velázquez's assistant Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo). He also added to the noted series of Early Italian pictures in the gallery. The number of acquisitions made to the collection during his period of office amounts to more than 500.[4]
Exhibitions
In the National Gallery of Ireland an exhibition of Burton's work ran from 25 October 2017 to 14 January 2018.
Influence
Irish artist Joe Caslin's mural during the 2015 marriage equality campaign in Ireland directly referenced Frederic William Burton’s The Meeting on the Turret Stairs, one of the National Gallery of Ireland’s most celebrated works.[9]
References
- ^ Aidan Dunne, Romantic Scene Voted Ireland's Favourite Painting, Irish Times, 25 May 2012.
- ^ In the UK Census of 1891, Sir Frederick himself gives his age as 74 and place of birth as "Wicklow, Ireland".
- ^ Roxton Townland, Corrofin ED, Rath Civil Parish, Barony of Inchiquin, County Clare, Ireland.
- ^ a b c Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Aspects of Irish Art. National Gallery of Ireland. Cahill & Co. 1974, p. 106. Retrieved 18 March 2008.
- ^ "Sir Frederic William Burton National Gallery Director". nationalgallery.org.uk. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
- ^ H Potterton, 'A Director with Discrimination: Frederic Burton at the National Gallery', Country Life, vol 155 (1974), pp.1140-41.
- ISBN 978-0-7112-3043-9. pp. 86–87
- ^ "Finding Power, by Joe Caslin". National Gallery of Ireland. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Burton, Sir Frederick William". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 863. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the