Irish School, early 19th Century VIEW OF DUBLIN ALONG THE LIFFEY FROM VICTORIA QUAY, DEPICTING THE W

Irish School, early 19th Century

VIEW OF DUBLIN ALONG THE LIFFEY FROM VICTORIA QUAY, DEPICTING THE WATLING STREET AND QUEEN STREET BRIDGES AND THE FOUR COURTS BEYOND

oil on canvas

LandscaPortraite

12 by 14in., 30 by 35cm.

Whyte`s, 18 November 2003, lot 116;Private collection

The present view is an exact replica of the engraving of Petrie`s View for the Excursions Through Ireland, titled Barracks & Queen`s Bridge, Dublin, engraved by T. Barber, published by Longman`s & Co., London.In this journeyman artist’s rendering of the view along Dublin’s Liffey from the westernmost extremity of the Liffey quays - the site of the Guinness Brewery - we have a charming and historically interesting work. The large mock-medieval gateway - at the southern foot of the Watling Street Bridge - was erected in 1812. Designed by Francis Johnson, it was known as the Richmond Tower, after the Duke of Richmond. By the mid 1840s however, when the new railway station opened at King’s Bridge (now Heuston Station), traffic along the quays increased and the tower gate was deemed an obstruction. Thus it was moved circa 1846 to its present location at the western entrance to the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham. Also visible in the painting is an early version of Watling Street Bridge (later replaced with a flat bridge to accommodate traffic) and the elegantly curved, three-arched Queen Street bridge, with its distinctive balustraded parapet and granite niches, still in evidence today. In the foreground a barge pushes off shore, laden with barrels which are more than likely from the Guinness brewery and would have been floated downstream to be loaded onto larger ships.