Great Court Yard, Dublin Castle
James Malton (1761 – Marylebone 1803)
Category
Art / Prints
Date
Unknown
Materials
Paper
Measurements
10.75 ins (h)17.25 ins (w)
Order this imageCollection
Shaw's Corner, Hertfordshire
NT 1274643
Summary
Colour aquatint of the Great Court Yard of Dublin Castle by James Malton (1761 – Marylebone 1803). To the right is a neoclassical building with rusticated arcade beneath columned portico, pediment, and tall, narrow domed cupola, flanked by arched gateways. The early 19th century Irish hand-coloured aquatints of Dublin by James Malton (1761-1803) in the dining room belonged to Charlotte Shaw, and she had a further set in their London flat. The selection of the prints and their placement on the walls and mantelpiece in this room in 1921 was Charlotte’s decision: she was keen to express a strong sense of her Irish roots in the house, and had fond memories of Dublin. One of these aquatints was displayed on the mantelpiece in the dining room, prior to the re-arrangement by Shaw after Charlotte’s death. James Malton was an Irish engraver and watercolourist. The prints are from the highly acclaimed series of 25 aquatints by Malton, etched for A Picturesque and Descriptive View of the City of Dublin. They were issued in monochrome in 1799, and later issued in colour aquatint. See Maurice Craig, Georgian Dublin: Twenty-Five Colour Aquatints by James Malton (Portlaoise: The Dolmen Press, 1984). Shaw may have accepted the Freedom of the City of Dublin in 1946, but that did not mean that he always held the place close to his heart. Indeed he firmly asserted the opposite in prominent pieces of autobiographical writing such as his preface to Immaturity, and his Sixteen Self Sketches. Speaking of his “abandonment of Dublin” in 1921, Shaw declared: “when I left Dublin I left (a few private friendships apart) no society that did not disgust me. To this day my sentimental regard for Ireland does not include the capital”.
Provenance
The Shaw Collection. The house and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust by George Bernard Shaw in 1950, together with Shaw's photographic archive.
Marks and inscriptions
Title below print "GREAT COURT YARD, DUBLIN CASTLE" Bottom right "James Malton del. et fecit" Below title "London. Published according to Act of Parliament July 1792 by Jas. Malton and George Cowen, Grafton Street, Dublin."
Makers and roles
James Malton (1761 – Marylebone 1803)