Richard Hand, Glass Painter
(fl. 1780-1817)
Glass Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
According to Pasquin he was born in Warwickshire. He seems, however, to have come to Dublin at an early age, and was probably the Richard Hand who entered the Dublin Society's Drawing School as a pupil in 1775.* He afterwards practised as a painter of landscapes and fruit, and was also employed in copying pictures. Having learned the process of staining glass from Clarke, a clever experimental chemist in Dublin, he applied himself to that branch of art with considerab e success. He lived in Lazar's Hill, and from there sent "A Dog" and two "Fruit pictures," one in glass, to the exhibition of the Society of Artists in William Street, in 1780. In the same year he brought over artificers from England, the Dublin Society contributing to his expenses, and in 1785 he was joined by J. J. Barralet (q.v.), and the two artists held an exhibition of "Pictures stained in Glass," at No. 14 New Buildings, Dame Street. This exhibition was not successful, and was closed owing to want of support on the part of the public. In 1793 the Dublin Society purchased for one hundred and twenty guineas a stained glass window executed by him. This was put up in the Society's House in Grafton Street, and is mentioned and praised by Sir John Carr in his "Stranger in Ireland," 1806. About the beginning of the nineteenth century Hand went to London, where his abilities as an artist and the improvements he had made in the art of glass-staining secured him recognition and employment. He painted some glass for Carlton House and Donnington Hall. In 1803 he made his only contribution to the Royal Academy —"a Fruit Piece." He died shortly before 1817.
NOTE: * Another Richard Hand, perhaps his son, entered the schools in 1793.
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