Lot 5: JAMES CHRISTOPHER TIMBRELL

JAMES CHRISTOPHER TIMBRELL 1807 - 1850 CAROLAN, THE IRISH BARD oil on canvas 105 by 147cm.; 41¼ by 57¾in.

London, Royal Academy, 1844, no.443.

'About the beginning of the last century, or the end of the century previous, the then Lord Mayor brought from Dublin a celebrated Italian performer. Carolan, who was on a visit at his Lordship's, found himself greatly neglected, complained of it in the presence of the foreigner. 'When you play in as masterly a manner' (replied his Lordship) 'you shall not be overlooked.' Carolan wagered with the musician, that though he was almost a stranger to Italian music, yet he would follow him in any piece of music he played, and that he himself would afterwards play a coluntary, in which the Italian would not follow him. The proposal was acceded to, and Carolan was victorious..' (from Life of Carolan, quoted in A.Graves, ed., The Royal Academy Exhibitors, Vol.VII, London 1906, p.396)

Turlough Carolan (1670 - 1738) was the last great Irish harper-composer. Born in West Meath, Carolan caught small pox at the age of eighteen and was left permanently blind. This misfortune proved to be a blessing in disguise as it awakened in him a great passion and talent for music. He was encouraged early on by a local noble woman named Mary Fitzgerald McDermott Rowe, who saw to it that he was trained on the Irish harp and equipped with the necessary tools to begin his travels.

Most Irish bards of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries began their training as young children, and it may have been Carolan's late start that contributed to his never gaining great acclaim as a performer. His lasting legacy was to be that of musical composition. Carolan frequented Dublin where he was greatly influenced by the musicians who had settled from the continent. As Graves' volume of Royal Academy Exhibitors recounts, Carolan won a bet with an Italian musician and consequently, by combining the ancient style of Gaelic harping with the highly ornate baroque style that was emerging from northern Italy, Carolan produced melodies which continue to have a lasting impact on traditional Irish music.

In 1724 John and William Neal printed the earliest collection of Irish music ever produced, A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes, and 24 out of the 49 melodies in the volume have been attributed to Carolan. Donal O'Sullivan published his entire repertoire in one 1958 edition, and O'Sullivan produced a comprehensive biography of the musician in 2005. Popular contemporary Irish musicians, such as The Dubliners and The Chieftains, continue to play Carolan's melodies and what is believed to be Carolan's harp is currently held in the National Museum of Ireland.

Carolan travelled amongst the big houses and castles of the gentry, entertaining the famous and wealthy throughout Ireland. Carolan, the Irish Bard, undoubtedly one of Timbrell's most ambitious paintings, depicts the composer performing in just such an environment for a crowd of finely attired individuals. Placed in a position of importance, Carolan commands the attention of the crowd who listen attentively. Putting down his reading, a monk has succumbed to the melody; a gentleman in the back gestures excitedly towards the performer; and even the dog has been stopped in his tracks by the tune.

Born and educated in Dublin, Timbrell was the younger brother of the sculptor Henry Timbrell. James was both a painter and a sculptor. He moved to London in 1830 where he worked for a large part of his career, exhibiting at The Royal Academy throughout the 1840s, and also submitting illustrations to Hall's Ireland, its Scenery and Character.