Edward Prittie, Figure Painter
(b.1851, d.1882)
Figure Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Edward Prittie, R.H.A. Photograph.
Was born in November, 1851, the son of the Hon. Francis Sadleir Prittie of Glenview, Clonmel, (brother of Henry, 3rd Lord Dunalley) by his wife Susanna Carter. He entered the 1st Battalion of the Rifle Brigade as a sub-lieutenant in December, 1872, but served for only a short time. His love of art determined him to become a painter, and in June, 1874, he resigned his commission and entered the Academy in Brussels as a student. There he made rapid progress, and six months after his entrance carried off the first prize and medal for painting. M. Stallaert, the Director, had a high opinion of his talents and took him into his own studio. In 1877 he sent from Brussels three pictures to the Royal Hibernian Academy, followed by three the next year. One of them, "Beatrice Cenci and her mother in the condemned Cell," was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1883 after the artist's death.
After spending a year in Italy, which he was advised to visit on account of his health, he settled in Dublin and was elected an Associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy in May, 1877. But he was never able to do much work, his health often preventing him for months at a time from painting, and he died at his residence No. 76 Lower Mount Street, of gout in the heart, on 15th March, 1882, aged 30. Prittie was an accomplished man, he was a musician and possessed a fine and cultivated voice, and was a clever mimic. When in Brussels he won the second prize for pigeon shooting at Spa. But in spite of his many-sided talents he was modest and diffident of his powers, and his warm-hearted and genial nature made him a favourite with all who knew him.
The Slave. [H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught.] Painted as a marriage gift for the Duke who had been in the same battalion of the Rifle Brigade as the artist. Brussels' "Triennial," Ex. 1878.
For God. [Lord Iveagh.] R.H.A., 1877.
Beatrice Cenci and her step-mother Lucrezia Petroni receiving sentence of death from the Pope's emissary. [Lady Adelaide Fitzgerald, Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford.] 10 ft. by 6 ft. R.H.A., 1878; R.A., 1883, after the painter's death.
Shylock leaving the Council Chamber. [Mrs. Gilling, Castleconnell, Co. Limerick.] Brussels, 1878. R.H.A., 1879.
Angelica. [Alexr. Colles, 3 Elgin Road, Dublin.] R.H.A., 1879.
A Greek Woman of Cyprus standing by a Well. R.H.A., 1879. The Broken Fountain. R.H.A., 1881.
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