Lot 100: Jonathan Fisher (c.1740-1809)

An album of eight views of Curraghmore House in 1768, Waterford; and a view of the city of Waterford
inscribed 'Nine Views of Curraghmore and a View of the City of Waterford/by Fisher' (on the frontispiece of the album) and each drawing further inscribed respectively 'The S.W. View of Curragmore [sic] in the County of WATERFORD. the Seat of the Right Hon b l e the Earl of Tyrone'; 'The South View of Curragmore [sic]'; 'The S.E. View of Curragmore [sic]'; 'The North View of Curragmore [sic].'; 'View in Curraghmore Park.'; 'View towards the Garden and Turret at Curraghmore.'; 'A View up the River at Curragmore [sic].'; 'A View down the River at Curraghmore.'; 'A View of the City of Waterford' (lower centre in the margin)
pencil, grey and pale blue wash; five with watermark 'D&C BLAUW', four with watermark Fleur de Lys
9 1/4 x 14 1/2 in. (23.5 x 37 cm.); and a black and white photograph of Curraghmore House in 1928 and a letter to the previous owner of the house regarding the Folio from Tony Crofton, dated 23 May 53 (3)

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

Fisher was one of the most highly regarded topographical artists in the second half of the eighteenth-century. Self taught, he won numerous prizes at the Dublin Society. He also worked in oil and published sixty prints entitled the Scenery of Ireland.

Few of his watercolours survive and the present, previously unrecorded album is a rare and important discovery. Two other sketchbooks by Fisher are in the collection of the National Library of Ireland, these sketchbooks are preparatory sketches for the sets of prints of views of Killarney, 1789 and Carlingford Lough, 1772. These two sketchbooks also include a number of views of estates, houses and landscape parks, including Curraghmore and a number of houses of the Dublin area which have subsequently disappeared (see A. Crookshank and the Knight of Glin, The Watercolours of Ireland, London, 1994, p. 89).

The present album is a rare and important record of Curraghmore House in the last quarter of the eighteenth-century, as it was subsequently refaced and remodelled in the Classical style in 1876 by Samuel Usher Roberts. Fisher has depicted the South view of the house with its two projecting bays before it was altered to add a pediment to the garden front and a balustraded roof parapet.

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