William Neilan, Draughtsman

(fl.1830-1854)

Draughtsman

From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913

A native of Dublin, born in 1815. He was admitted to the Dublin Society's School as a pupil in 1828, and gained prizes there in several successive years. He occasionally exhibited portraits in the Royal Hibernian Academy, but seems to have chiefly worked as an anatomical draughtsman. On 3rd February, 1846, he was elected Master of the figure school of the Royal Dublin Society in succession to R. L. West. When the school was placed under the Board of Trade in 1849, Neilan was continued for a time in charge of the figure school, under the head master Henry MacManus; but on the abolition of the separate schools in 1854, he and the other three masters were retired.

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