Peter Shee, Landscape Painter
(d. 1767)
Landscape Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
He was originally a house-painter in Dublin, and from 1752 to 1757 was employed by Henry Delamain in his delft works as a painter and clerk. He took to landscape painting, and, though without any regular training in art, the natural talent shown in his pictures brought him into notice. He painted landscapes, many of them compositions in imitation of Claude, as well as religious and allegorical subjects; a picture of "Lucretia" being especially admired. In 1761, on the occasion of the public rejoicings in Dublin on the King's marriage, he executed a number of allegorical paintings which were put up in the streets and were highly praised at the time.
He contributed two pictures, "Faith, Hope and Charity" and a "Dead Christ," to the first exhibition of the Society of Artists held in George's Lane in 1765, and also to those in William Street in 1766 and 1767. He was then living in Smock Alley. Shee, however, failed to obtain sufficient encouragement and support as an artist; he fell into distress and died in New Street in September, 1767. A large landscape composition by him belongs to W. Booth Pearsall. F.R.C.S.I., and other signed works by him are occasionally met with.
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