Herbert Pugh, Landscape Painter
(fl. 1758-1788)
Landscape Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Born in Ireland he went to England about 1758, and in 1765 when he was living in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden, he obtained a premium of twenty-five guineas from the Society of Arts for a landscape in oil. He was a Member of the Society of Artists and contributed forty-five works to its exhibitions between 1760 and 1776, nearly all landscapes and views, but including "The Italian and British Quack Doctors" in 1769, "The Amorous old Beau" in 1772, and "The Procuress" in 1775. These were probably of the same nature as two or three pictures done by him in imitation of Hogarth which, says Edwards ("Anecdotes of Painting"), "are nothing but mere representations of vulgar debauchery." These pictures were engraved by Goldar. In 1777 he had two works, "The Morning Visit" and a "View of Covent Garden Market," at "The Exhibition or Grand Museum of Arts and Sciences at the Great Room, Royal Exchange, Strand." Pugh's intemperate habits hastened his death which took place shortly after 1788. There is a large landscape by him in the Lock Hospital, London, and two views of London Bridge were exhibited in the Grosvenor Gallery in 1888.