IMPORTANT IRISH ART 25 MAY 2026

120 83 Nicholas Joseph Crowley (1819-1857) PORTRAIT OF DANIEL O’CONNELL, c.1844 oil on canvas 36 by 28in. (91.4 by 71.1cm) Frame Size: 48 by 40in. (121.9 by 101.6cm) Provenance: Major V.H. Maher, 88th Connaught Rangers, Ballinkeele, Co. Wexford; Gifted by Major Maher to The Cork Club, December 1904; Fromwhence it was acquired by J. Gorry Snr.; Gorry Gallery, Dublin; Private collection Literature: Walter G. Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists, Volume I, Irish University Press, 1969, listed p.237 Nicholas Joseph Crowley was an Irish genre and portrait painter born in Dublin in 1819. As a child, Crowley was considered an artistic prodigy. He was first trained at the Royal Dublin Society schools from 1827. He then enrolled as a pupil at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1832, age 13, having exhibited there for the first time in 1827 with a portrait of Dr William Crolly. In 1833 he exhibited six portraits and continued to exhibit with the RHA until his death in 1857. Crowley moved to London in 1837, where he lived for the rest of his life, visiting Dublin occasionally. In 1844 he produced several portraits of Daniel O’Connell during the nationalist leader’s imprisonment for conspiracy at Richmond Bridewell. O’Connell was held there for three months after his proposed ‘Monster Meeting’ at Clontarf in favour of Repeal of the Union, or Irish self-government, had been declared illegal. O’Connell’s stay there was, however, much more comfortable than that of most ordinary prisoners being housed in rooms in the Governor’s suite. €6,000-€8,000 (£5,220-£6,960 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot83