Susanna Drury, Water-colour Painter
(fl. 1733-1770)
Water-colour Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Was sister of the foregoing Franklin Drury. She painted landscapes both in England and Ireland and also did some book illustrations. She is best known by the two engravings of the Giant's Causeway, done after her drawings. The drawings, with two others, obtained a premium of twenty-five pounds from the Dublin Society in 1740; they are thus referred to in William Hamilton's "Letters concerning the Northern Coast of Antrim," 1786: "Mrs. Susanna Drury made two very beautiful and correct paintings of the Giant's Causeway, which obtained the premium appointed for the encouragement of the arts in Ireland, these drawings being soon after engraved by the hand of an eminent artist." The engraver was Vivares of London. The prints represent the East Prospect and the West Prospect of the Causeway, and measure 16 ¼ by 27 ¼ inches, the first dedicated to John Boyle, Earl of Orrery, the second to Alexander, Earl of Antrim. "Faulkner's Journal" announces, 14th April, 1745: "Just arrived from London two original prints of the Giant's Causeway, done from the Dublin Society's original premium pictures, to be had at Mr. Drury's in Anne Street, near St. Stephen's Green, and nowhere else." These prints were afterwards, in 1777, republished by Boydell in London, and were again reprinted in 1837. The original water-colour drawings are in the possession of Mr. Isaac D'Olier, of Herbert House, Booterstown Avenue. They were shown at the Royal Dublin Society's Exhibition in 1858. At Carton there are two chalk drawings of the Causeway by Susanna Drury, each measuring 13 by 27 inches; and in the collection of Dr. J. Barrett, Vice-Provost of Trinity College, sold in May, 1822, was a large drawing of the Causeway by her, 4 ½ feet by 15 inches. A water-colour "View of London from Greenwich Park," signed Sus. Drury , 1733, was sold at Bennett's Auction Rooms, Dublin, on 2nd February, 1905.
Susanna Drury married, and was probably the "Susanna Warter" mentioned in the will of her brother Franklin Drury in 1770.
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