Lot 35: James Coy (c.1750-c.1780)

A wooded coastal landscape with figures and a pony resting beside a path and a ruined tower signed and dated 'J.B. Coy 1776' (lower left) oil on canvas 173/4 x 27 in. (45.1 x 68.8 cm.) PROVENANCE J. Carpenter Garnier, Rookesbury Park, Wickham, Hampshire; Christie's, 27 July 1928, lot 2 (5 gns. to Collings). LITERATURE A. Crookshank and the Knight of Glin, The Painters of Ireland, c. 1660-1920,, London, 1978, p. 111, note 7. NOTES James B. Coy was a pupil of the landscape painter Robert Carver (fl. 1750-91) and his works are rarely seen. He won a Dublin Society premium and palette and also studied under George Mullins, with whom he was living in 1769 when he sent a landscape to the Society of Artists, where he exhibited between 1769 and 1774. He died from a chill caught when working for Lord Altamont at Westport House, Co. Mayo. The hill in the background of the picture may be inspired by Creogh Patrick, near Westport, in Co. Mayo.