Joseph Peacock, Subject Painter

(b. about 1783, d. 1837)

Subject Painter

From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913

He practised in Dublin for many years as a painter, from 1810 to 1826 at 40 Great Strand Street, and afterwards, until his death, at No. 21 Bachelor's Walk, where "Peacock, Painter" was displayed on a large sign-board. He painted subject pictures, made copies from the old Dutch masters, and also worked as a picture cleaner and restorer. He contributed to the various exhibitions in Dublin from 1809 to 1821, his first exhibited works being "A Stage-coach Scene" and a "Portrait of a Lion." In 1811 he showed his "Palmerston Fair," "exhibiting by at least 1,000 figures all the incidents to be met with in such scenes of variety and merriment" ("Freeman," 15th April, 1811), a large picture, 54 by 33 inches, afterwards in the possession of Francis Johnston the architect; and in 1821 "The Installation of a Knight of St. Patrick in St. Patrick's Cathedral, 27th May, 1819," which was intended to be engraved. He was chosen one of the original Members of the Royal Hibernian Academy on its foundation in 1823, and was an exhibitor from 1826 to 1835. In 1817 he sent a picture to the London Academy, "The Patron, or Festival of St. Kevin at the Seven Churches, Glendalough," which was again exhibited the next year at the British Institution, and now belongs to Lord Deramore. Among other pictures by him were "Donnybrook Fair, a scene in a tent," and a copy, bust only, of Reynolds' portrait of "John Hely-Hutchinson" which hangs in the Provost's House, Dublin. He also put in the figures in some of J. A. O'Connor's landscapes.

Peacock, who described himself as "Familiar Life and Animal Painter," died of dropsy in his house in Bachelor's Walk in 1837, aged 54. His sister, Anne, married a Peter Phillips, a carver and ornamental house-painter, and continued Peacock's business as a picture-cleaner in the house in Bachelor's Walk.

His son, JOSEPH PEACOCK, JUN., entered the Dublin Society's School in 1816, and painted landscapes, figures and portraits and was an exhibitor in the Royal Hibernian Academy down to 1835.

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