Edmund Garvey, Landscape Painter

(d. 1813)

Landscape Painter

From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913

A native of Ireland, he went abroad as a young man and spent some years in Italy. On his return he took up his residence at Bath, where he remained until 1778 when he established himself in London. He first exhibited in 1767 at the Free Society of Artists, and in 1769 at the Royal Academy, where he continued to exhibit until 1808. He was elected an Associate in 1770, and a Member in 1783, when his election gave great offence to Wright of Derby. The Society of Arts awarded him premiums for landscapes in 1769 and 1771. He worked both in oil and water-colour, his subjects being chiefly views of scenery in Italy and the Alps, and of gentlemen's seats in England. He visited, and painted in Ireland, as in 1784 he sent a "View of Killarney from Ross Island" to the Royal Academy; in 1786 "The Bay of Dublin" and "The Giant's Causeway"; and in 1787 "The Upper Lake of Killarney," a picture he exhibited also in the British Institution in 1809. A large "Landscape" in oil by him is in the Diploma Gallery of the Royal Academy; and a "View of Plymouth Dock" was engraved by W. Birch in 1788. His art was poor. Pasquin speaks of him as "a Royal Academician whose qualifications are, if possible, more doubtful than any of his compeers." A critic in the "Gentleman's Magazine," in 1767, writes of his pictures as having "a disagreeable sameness of colour, and figures without one spark of life." He died in 1813.

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