Mrs. Taylor, Portrait and Genre Painter
(b. 1777, d. about 1823)
Portrait and Genre Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Maria, daughter of John Spilsbury, the engraver, was born in London in 1777. She painted portraits and rural and domestic subjects, and also did a few original etchings. She exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1792 to 1808, and at the British Institution from 1806 to 1813. Several of her works were engraved, such as "Going to School," "After School," "Reading" and "Singing," by Charles Turner; a "Portrait of Rev. B. W. Mathias, Chaplain of Bethesda, Dublin," also by C. Turner, published by Allen, in Dame Street, Dublin, and by Colnaghi, London; and a "Portrait of the Rev. W. Kingsbury," by H. Dawe; "The Drinking Well in Hyde Park," "The Stolen Child and Gipsies" and "The Lost Child Found." In 1809 she married one John Taylor, and in 1813 she came to Ireland where she did many pictures and drawings, and was an exhibitor of small portraits at the Hibernian Society in 1814 and 1815. In a notice of the former exhibition, the "Monthly Museum" says: "Mrs. Taylor's pictures exhibit a taste and delicacy of execution rarely to be met with." She also exhibited, in Hawkins Street, portraits and rural subjects, such as "Gipsies at a Cottage Door," and "Patron's Day at the Seven Churches, Glendalough," in 1816; "All Hallow's Eve" in 1817, and "The Cottage Door" in 1819. A "Gipsy and Children" was in the collection of John Crosbie Graves, of 12 Fitzwilliam Square, sold in April, 1835, which the catalogue described as the artist's best performance. This was, perhaps, the original of one of the engravings mentioned above.
Mrs. Taylor died about 1823.
The following portraits done in Ireland by her have been met with:
Mrs. Barter. [Mrs. Warren, Balbriggan.]
Mrs. Blachford. [Rev. Rowland Scriven, Balbriggan.]
Mrs. Grattan, wife of Henry Grattan, a small full-length portrait in oils. [National Gallery of Ireland.]
Alexander Hamilton, his wife and daughters; group. [Mrs. Deane Freeman, Vesey Place, Kingstown.]
G. Hamilton. [Colonel Johnston, Kilmore, Co. Armagh.]
Hugh Hamilton. [Colonel Johnston, Kilmore, Co. Armagh.]
Mrs. Hamilton and daughter. [Mrs. Whyte, Hollymount, Tunbridge Wells.]
Francis Synge. [Mrs. Synge, Glanmore Castle, Co. Wicklow.]
Robert Sandys. [Mrs. Sandys, Enniskerry.]
Mrs. Tighe. Pencil. [Charles Hamilton, Hamwood, Dunboyne.]
Miss Tighe, afterwards Mrs. Charles Hamilton. Pencil. [Charles Hamilton, Hamwood, Dunboyne.]
Mrs. Tighe of Rossana and her daughter. Pencil. [Charles Hamilton, Hamwood, Dunboyne.]
A Family Group. [Charles Hamilton, Hamwood, Dunboyne].
« William Benjamin Sarsfield Taylor | Contents and Search | John Samuel Templeton »