Attributed to John Comerford (c 1770-1832) "Portrait of Her...

Hammer

€6,000

Attributed to John Comerford (c 1770-1832)

"Portrait of Hercules Langrishe (1731-1811)," painted c. 1800, O.O.C., relined in contemporary gilt frame with later inscription plaque, 64cms x 50cms (25" x 20"). (1)

A spirited and lively painting, this portrait of Sir Hercules Langrishe was for many years in Knocktopher Abbey, the ancestral home of the Langrishe family, near Thomastown in Co Kilkenny. It depicts Langrishe, head and shoulders, aged around seventy, wearing a white cravat. Although not included in Strickland’s list of portraits by John Comerford, the style, treatment and provenance all point to it being by Comerford, a portrait painter who worked mainly in Kilkenny and Dublin. Educated at Trinity College, where he graduated in 1753, Hercules Langrishe served as MP for Knocktopher for many years, was Commissioner of Revenue, and a member of the Irish Privy Council. Among his many friends were Henry Flood, Henry Grattan and Edmund Burke. Burke’s letter to Langrishe on the subject of Roman Catholics in Ireland and the relaxation of the Penal Laws, was published as a pamphlet in 1792.
N.B. Langrishe’s speeches in the Irish Parliament were also published and he contributed to Baratariana, a satire, originally published in the Freeman’s Journal, on the Lord Lieutenancy of Lord Townshend. In it, Langrishe describes John Hely Hutchinson: “His whole elocution is alike futile and superficial. It has verdure without soil, like the fields imagined in a Calenture. He has great fluency, but little or no argument. He has some fancy, too, but it serves just to wrap him into the clouds and leave him there, while he holds himself suspended, planning and warbling like a lark, without one thought to interrupt the song. If he has any forte it is in vituperation or abuse.” In 1792 Langrishe introduced the Catholic Relief Act in the Irish Parliament, which succeeded in relaxing some of the Penal Laws, and allowed Catholics to practice law. Married to Hannah Myhill and the father of five children, Langrishe was described by Jonah Barrington in his 'Personal Sketches' as having ‘very much the tone of a Methodist minister, yet was of one the wittiest men in Ireland’. Comerford contributed many of the portrait drawings for Barrington’s memoirs, and in terms of their tone and liveliness, they are strong evidence for the attribution of the present portrait to Comerford. One evening, Barrington and friends called on Langrishe at his home on Stephen’s Green. “We found him in his study alone, poring over the national accounts, with two claret bottles empty before him, and a third bottle on the wane; it was about eight o’clock in the evening, and the butler, according to general orders when gentlemen came in, brought a bottle of claret to each of us. “Why,” said Parnell, “Sir Heck, you have emptied two bottles already.” “True,” said Sir Hercules. “And had you nobody to help you?” “Oh yes, I had that bottle of port there, and I assure you he afforded me very great assistance!” According to Barrington, ‘Sir Heck’ had an abundance of ‘slow, kind-hearted, thought methodistically-pronounced, repartee.’ This wit is evident in a letter Langrishe wrote to the Earl of Charlemont, describing the Hotwells spa near Bristol. “The sick come here in search of health; the sound, in pursuit of pleasure; the idle, to meet idleness; the clergy, to be absent from their duty; the great, because it is the fashion; and the little, because the great come. There are no cards played here; nor are there long rooms for the accommodation of the ladies. Though the company at present is very brilliant, consisting of an Irish earl and his lady (whose taste can make anything elegant, whose society any place happy), an English lord of the bedchamber (whose picture your lordship may have seen in Dublin), lady Betty Germain, general Sinclair, sir John Cope, the bishop of Sodor and Man, Mr. Sheridan, Mrs. Bettesworth, nine Irish bishops, twelve deans, and three archdeacons without their wives. . .” [Correspondence of the Earl of Charlemont, Vol 2, p. 400]

Born in Kilkenny around 1770, John Comerford began his career as an artist painting portraits in oils in his home town, as well as in neighbouring Carrick-on-Suir and Waterford. In the 1790’s he divided his time between Dublin and Kilkenny, seeking commissions for portraits. On 13th September 1793 he advertised in Finn’s Leinster Journal: “Likenesses in oil and miniature by J. Comerford, who has arrived in Kilkenny for a short time at Mr Comerford’s opposite the Tholsel.” Comerford became a friend of George Chinnery, and was also influenced by the American portrait painter Gilbert Stuart, who worked in Ireland in the early 1790’s, and whose portrait of George Washington closely resembles the Langrishe portrait. Comerford’s sitters included the poet Mary Tighe, of Woodstock House, Charles Kendal Bushe, Daniel O’Connell, Lord Charlemont, John Philpott Curran, James Gandon and Lady Morgan. Commissioned by the Emmet family, Comerford drew a portrait of Robert Emmet during his trial in 1803. By the turn of the century however he had largely abandoned working in oils, concentrating instead on painting miniatures, including many of politicians and lawyers. Although Comerford was well-known for his opposition to the formation of an Academy for artists in Ireland, he was elected a committee member of the Irish Society of Artists in 1811 and subsequently became its vice-president. He occasionally collaborated on paintings with the artist Thomas Sautelle Roberts. Highly-regarded for his miniature portraits, Comerford also had pupils, among them Samuel Lover and John Doyle. His aversion to the Royal Hibernian Academy may have contributed to his being overlooked by art historians, yet he is one of the finest Irish portrait painters of the nineteenth century.

Together with the portrait is: Langrishe (Sir Hercules) The First Edition of a Speech on Parliamentary Reform,  1794, bound in blue buckram, v. rare. (2)

* Indistinctly signed on label on reverse.
Provenance:  Purchased at Dispersal Sale of Knocktopher Abbey, Co. Kilkenny, Ancestral home of Sir Hercules Langrishe.

N.B. PROVENANCE SHOULD READ:
Ex. Collection Knocktopher Abbey, Co. Kilkenny, Ancestral home of Sir Hercules Langrishe. This lot was not included in the dispersal sale.