Description
A View of the City of Dublin from Chapelizod oil on canvas 46 x 591/2 in. (116.8 x 150.4 cm.) NOTES Joseph Tudor, one of the most ambitious and highly regarded Irish painters of his generation, based this large picture, which is among the earliest of its kind, on his equally ambitious pen and ink drawing taken from a similar viewpoint (fig. 1). However, rather than simply reproducing the drawing, of which a number of engravings were made, in different media, Tudor made significant and judicious alterations to the detail. These both embellished the scene pictorially and elevated it above pure topography. While the drawing features a young well-dressed family, comprising a father in a tricorn hat, a mother wearing particularly broad oblong hoops, and a young girl in a bonnet standing in isolation on a hill overlooking the city, the painting includes a festive scene, in which a young couple in more rustic attire dance to pipe music. They occupy roughly the same space in the centre foreground as the trio in the drawing, but skip around gleefully under the observation of a gathering of friends. One can ascertain from the changes made to the foreground of the picture the degree to which Tudor wished to emulate the grand spatial effects and evocative atmosphere in the work of Claude Lorrain (1604/5-82). Indeed, it is conceivable that the activity in the foreground is a wedding scene, and the figures in the foreground of the painting are reminiscent of those in Claude's celebrated Landscape with the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah (The Mill) (fig. 2; National Gallery, London), commissioned by Camillo Pamphili in 1672. Tudor included a smaller number of figures, and depicted then in rustic, rather than classical dress, but they certainly owe some debt to Claude. Equally, the repoussoir trees to the left and right in Tudor's picture, which frame the activity in the foreground, add verticality to the composition, lead the eye of the viewer from foreground to background and, standing in profile against the sky, provide the picture's principal contrast in light and shade, are also strongly reminiscent of Claude's painting. These trees are conspicuously absent from Tudor's more topographical drawing. Irish and British landscape painters continued to adopt this particular device throughout the eighteenth century, and it's harmonising effects can be seen clearly if one compares the current picture with Tudor's more horizontal composition The Obelisk in Memory of the Battle of the Boyne of 1746 (Private Collection). Significantly, Tudor did not merely reproduce Claudean effects in his own work, but appropriated them with considerable sleight of hand to an Irish scene. Thus, his view of Dublin is not a generic Arcadian scene, but an authentic, albeit mediated, record of Dublin in the first half of the eighteenth century. The scene's autumnal palette, predominantly grey architecture and cloudy sky seem characteristically Irish. As well as the village of Island Bridge, significant architectural features visible in Tudor's painting include the spires of Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick's Cathedral, the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dr Steeven's Hospital (including the wooden clock tower that was added in 1735), the Royal Barracks and Bloody Bridge. In executing a picture of the city of such scope and ambition, Tudor established an important precedent, and accomplished painters such as William Ashford (1746-1824) and William Sadler (1782-1839) produced views of Dublin from very comparable viewpoints many decades later. Indeed, it is highly likely that both were inspired by prints after Tudor's above mentioned drawing from the Magazine Fort, of which a number of versions were produced. The viewpoint for Ashford's A View of Dublin from Chapelizod of 1795-98 (fig. 3; National Gallery of Ireland) is slightly different from that for Tudor's drawing but extremely close to the painting. By comparing the two paintings, one can trace the architectural development that occurred in the Irish capital from the late seventeenth to the late eighteenth century. Tudor's painting also includes immutable and permanent features of the Dublin landscape, including the River Liffey, which meanders through the city, and, rather capriciously, on opposite sides of the horizon, Howth Head and Bray Head, at the mouth of Dublin Bay. The relatively few pictures by Tudor that are known testify to the artist's considerable ambition and technical accomplishment. They are also characterised by their distinctly cheerful atmosphere. Tudor achieved this quality principally through skilful inclusion of touches of bright colour, which also calls Claude to mind, and through his deliberate animation of the figures. This painting, for instance, is markedly more dynamic than the associated drawing, and is replete with detail that enlivens the scene and reflects the activity and vibrancy of the city. As the festivities continue in the foreground, fishermen in a boat and on shore downstream draw in their nets, soldiers linger in conversation by the walls of the fortification on the hill to the left, two gentlemen stroll along a pathway, and a mischievous dog chases a stag along a bank. However, lest Tudor's audience should forget that they are still on the boundary between city and country, rather than in Dublin proper, the artist has included the pastoral detail of two cattle, which lie down prominently in the middle ground and lazily observe the cavorting group in front of them. Significantly, a viewpoint slightly further from the city allowed Tudor to include the long weir of Chapelizod (equally prominent in Ashford's painting) that does not appear in his drawing. It's placement and aspect is not entirely accurate, but this apparent deceit was absolutely consistent with Tudor's own work and with Irish eighteenth century landscape painting in general. In his delightful View of Leixlip Castle (fig. 3; National Gallery of Ireland), for example, Tudor placed a weir that was in reality a quarter of a mile from the castle much closer in order to enhance the composition and emphasise the subject of the picture. In another version of that painting, in Castletown House, the weir appears almost adjacent to the castle. As weirs punctuated the Liffey as it approaches Dublin, and Tudor was demonstrably not seeking topographical exactitude in his View of Dublin from Chapelizod, it was entirely appropriate for him to have manipulated the scene in this way. Moreover, he did so to excellent effect. Joseph Tudor, who showed prodigious talent as a young man, receiving premiums from the Dublin Society for landscape painting on five occasions, lived on Dame Street in Dublin. He worked as a scene painter on at least two productions at the Smock Alley Theatre and appears to have established a healthy practice in the city. A number of his works appears in print form, including his Perspective View of the Illuminations and Fireworks at St Stephen's Green on Thanksgiving Day for the General Peace concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) and his View of Archbishop Boyle's residence in Blessington . His series of six views of public building in Dublin, published in 1753, proved very popular. He also painted 'decorations and paintings' for the supper room at Dublin Castle to celebrate the birthday of King George II, and, in 1750, a Heavenly Vision for Waterford Cathedral. Tudor died at his home in Dame Street on 24 March in 1759. It is likely that his expansive compositions like View of Dublin from Chapelizod, which probably dates from c. 1750, were informed both by Tudor's own experience as a scene painter at Smock Alley theatre in Dublin, and by the work of William van der Hagen (fl. 1720-45), who had also worked as a scene painter and whose influence on a number of artists in Ireland of Tudor's generation and later was considerable. To be included in Anne Crookshank and The Knight of Glin's Ireland's Painters to be published by Yale University Press later this year. We are grateful to Dr. Brendan Rooney for providing us with this catalogue entry.
