George Meade, Historical Painter
(d. 1835)
Historical Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
He belonged to a family connected with the ribbon-weaving trade in the Coombe. While clerk to a brewer he employed his leisure in studying painting, but did not take to art as a profession until somewhat late in life. He contributed to the various exhibitions in Dublin between 1802 and 1815, pictures chiefly of biblical subjects, and also painted classical and historical scenes. He was a member of the Society of Artists and enjoyed a considerable reputation as a painter. He died at his residence, No. 6 Malpas Street, on 1st June, 1835, in his eighty-first year. In his will, made the 5th January, 1828. he desired to be buried in Meath Street churchyard. He left a few of his oil pictures to his daughter, Elizabeth Theresa, wife of William Dromgoole, and directed that the rest should be sold by auction within a month of his death. The collection contained a number of his own works, such as "Christ raising the Widow's Son" which he had exhibited in 1811, and "Esther before Ahasuerus"; as well as several copies from the Old Masters, a "Rubens' Wife," from a picture belonging to the Earl of Wicklow, and a "Virgin and Child, with Saints" from one belonging to the Earl of Milltown. The "Dublin Evening Post," in noticing his death, styles him "one of the most eminent historical painters this country has produced."