WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 2 December 2019

170 145 Michael George Brennan (1839-1871) INTERIOR WITH MOTHER AND CHILD, ROME, 1863 oil on canvas signed, inscribed [Rome] and dated lower left; with partial label of Foord & Dickinson [London] framing label on reverse 17.50 by 20.50in. (44.5 by 52.1cm) Provenance: Private collection, England since c.1880; Thence by family descent to the present owner Presented in original Foord & Dickinson frame. Foord & Dickinson were a prestigious company in London used by the likes of J.M.W. Turner, John Ruskin and Dante Gabriel Rossetti among many others. Michael George Brennan, subject and landscape painter, was born and educated in Castlebar Co. Mayo where his talents were noted by Charles O’Donal, afterwards a police magistrate in Dublin (Strickland, p.83). Aged fifteen he was sent to the Dublin Society’s School and later the Royal Hibernian Academy where his skills where honed. He later travelled to London, working on several publications there, in- cluding Fun, a rival to Punch. Ill health in the form of typhoid fever led Brennan back to Ireland and later prompted a further relocation to the warmer climes of Italy. He settled in Rome, where he lives with fellow artists George Symonds and Keeley Halswelle. Brennan continued to send back paintings for exhibition in the Royal Academy between the years 1865-1878. Strickland describes how his works were warmly praised as admirably painted, harmonious in colour, and full of character and feeling.” After some years in Rome he took up residence in Capri making occasional trips to England and Ireland. In 1870 owing to his continued ill health was ordered to Algiers where he was a guest of Lady Kingston at the Campagna Kingstone. He died there in July 1871 following complica- tions from a fall. Two works by Brennan can be found in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, A Vine Pergola at Capri, 1866 [NGI 153] and In the Church of San Costanzo, Capri [NGI 155] both purchased by the gallery in 1873. €5,000-€7,000 (£4,310-£6,030 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid Lot 145