Lot 129: Gregor Grey (fl.1870s-1911) HER FIRST BROOD, 1887

Gregor Grey (fl.1870s-1911) HER FIRST BROOD, 1887 signed and dated lower left oil on canvas 71 by 91cm., 28 by 36in. Exhibited: RHA, Dublin, 1887, catalogue no. 61 @40-0-0) Gregor Grey was the son of Charles Grey RHA (c.1808-1892) and brother of the painters Alfred Grey RHA (1845-1926), Edwin Landseer Grey and James Grey and the engraver Charles Malcolm Grey. Gregor exhibited every year at the RHA from 1877 to 1911, averaging three to four exhibits a year - the most that a non-RHA member could possibly hope to have accepted. He also showed twice at the Oireachtas Art Exhibitions of 1906 and 1907. His works tended to be on a rustic theme and featured quaint, anecdotal titles. Grey earned - albeit unwittingly - some modicum of posterity when James Joyce included in Ulysses a character called Gregor Grey who was the designer of Gallaher's map and whose career was given "a leg up" by illustrating an advertisement. Lots 129 to 133 are from a single private collection.