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T A G  S A L E S

George Nairn 1799-1850



Mayfly

Oil on canvas 30 x 39 inches.
Signed by the artist and dated 1832.
Exhibited:
Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1832, number 79.
Provenance:
Aery Penrose Jessop, Shanderry, Mountrath, Co. Laois;
Private collection, County Kildare.

George Nairn began his career at the Dublin Society's Schools in July 1813 after which he founded a studio and established himself as a portrait, landscape and animal painter. However, according to Strickland, it was as the latter that he was best known, being much sought after in painting portraits of favourite horses and dogs. He contributed to the first exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1826, a Group of favourite Dogs belonging to Francis Johnston. He was a regular exhibitor there until 1849 and was elected an Associate on the 22nd May 1828. He was one of the finest painters of his day and his work is often confused with that of George Stubbs and John Ferneley. His wife Cecilia, daughter of the landscape painter John Henry Campbell, was also an accomplished artist. His son, John Campbell Nairn, born in 1831, trained as an artist under his father and established a successful career in Dublin and London as a restorer of paintings.

Set in a fine landscape beneath a magnificent sky, Mayfly was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1831. The imprint of a circular sticker, applied to indicate a sold work, is visible to the left of the signature. With a pedigree crossing back to Eclipse on both sides, Mayfly was bred by Sir W.W.W. Wynne in 1823 and belonged to Aery Penrose Jessop, Shanderry, Mountrath, Co. Laois. In April 1830, the Waterford Mail reported that Jessop, aged twenty two, had married Elizabeth Howe at the Friends Meeting House in Mountmellick. In 1833 he was advertising Mayfly, standing at Shanderry, with a stud fee of 5 Guineas, which was reduced to £2 in 1840.

Set well back from the road on 41 acres, Shanderry is described in ‘Buildings of Ireland’ as a detached five-bay three-storey house circa1830 with a double-pitched and hipped slate roof with nap rendered chimneystacks. In his survey of the houses of County Laois, John Colclough describes it as one of the various properties of the Despard family. Shanderry, or Seandoire, the old oak wood, appears in ‘Leet’ 1814 as the seat of Francis Despard, built by his father about 20 years earlier. From Jane Despard’s memoranda of 1837, we know that the house passed down to Frank Despard and subsequently to his wife. It was advertised for lease in March 1826.

Price on application: dominick@mpfa.ie


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# 353 1 269 3486 - Email dominick@mpfa.ie

Private Dealers in Fine Irish and European Paintings
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