James Coy, Landscape Painter
(fl. 1769-1780)
Landscape Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
His father was originally a weaver and afterwards a grocer in Lazar's Hill, Dublin. He made his studies in drawing in the Dublin Society's School in Shaw's Court, and was apprenticed to Robert Carver (q.v.). He also studied with George Mullins. When Carver went to London in 1769 he wished his pupil to accompany him, but although the offer was made on very favourable terms Coy refused. He now started for himself as a landscape painter, and obtained considerable success, especially with his views of scenery in the County Wicklow. He exhibited landscapes with the Society of Artists in William Street from 1769 to 1774, and in 1770 was given by the Dublin Society a premium of twenty-two pounds fifteen shillings for a landscape, and also received a silver palette "for his performances in landscape painting." From 1774 to 1778 he was living in College Green. While painting pictures for Lord Altamont at Westport, County Mayo, he was seized with illness, the result of a chill, and died there in his thirtieth year, probably in or about 1780. He is mentioned in Campbell's "Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland," 1778, as "deserving of great praise as a landscape painter."