WHYTE'S IRISH ART 28 MAY 2018

21 FrancisWilliamTopham RA OWS (1808-1877) PILGRIMS TO CLONMACNOISE CROSS, COUNTY OFFALY, c.1845 watercolour with title and artist’s name in pencil on original mount preserved on reverse 11 by 18.50in. (27.9 by 47cm) Pilgrims at Clonmacnoise shows figures gathered at the base of The Scripture Cross, one of the outstand- ing Irish High crosses carved and erected by Abbot Colman in honour of King Flann, who died in 914. Here the pilgrims are shown kneeling in prayer, gathered together in small groups and, in the central foreground a woman is seated cradling her infant. A similar detail can be found in a work in graphite and watercolour titled The Irish Mother held in the col- lection of the NGI [no. 2282] dating to c.1850. Topham is recorded as having visited Ireland in 1844, 1845, 1860 and 1862 which would suggest the present example may correspond to his earliest visit. Another watercolour inscribed ‘Ruins of Clon Marnow’ exhibited at the Gorry Gallery (31 January to 8 February 2002, no. 15) was thought to have been connected to Clonmacnoise in its depiction of two female peas- ants before a ruined church window. The present is an important contemporaneous depiction of the Irish peasantry at the onset of The Great Famine in 1845. €3,000-€5,000 (£2,630-£4,390 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid Lot 21