Lot 185: WILLIAM ASHFORD 1746-1824

MATERIAL/MEDIUM
oil on canvas

153 by 243 cm., 60 1/4 by 95 3/4 in.

This impressive view of Belan House was painted circa 1783 by one of Ireland's foremost landscape artists. Ashford started exhibiting at the Society of Artists in Dublin in 1767, but it was not until 1772 that he began to gain renown as a landscape painter. Ashford exhibited at the Society of Artists, in London, between 1777 and 1791, and quickly established himself as a painter of country houses. At the Royal Academy in 1785 Ashford exhibited a picture of Lord Bessborough's Park, Ireland (no.149), and in 1789 Powerscourt Park, Co. Wicklow (no.175). A number of years later, Ashford exhibited views of the seats of both Lord Fitzwilliam and Lord Clanbrassil at the British Institution in 1808 (nos.158 and 469). Ashford was elected the first President of the Royal Hibernian Society in 1823.

The site on which Belan House stood had belonged to the Stratford family since the reign of William III. It was admired over the centuries by a number of visitors, including Samuel Molyneux, who in 1709 thought the landscape scene 'handsome and improved'. John Loveday, on a tour of Ireland in 1732 noticed 'large plantations of trees in variety of shady walks, groves, several Ponds, also new-stocked with Fish...Avenues on both sides of the house' (Diary of a Tour through Ireland, 1890, p.28). It was in 1743 that the house was rebuilt, much as it appears in the present work, by the architect, Richard Castle, in collaboration with the amateur architect, Francis Bindon. It became a three-storied structure, about 120 by 44 feet. John Stratford was created Earl of Aldborough in 1777, and by this time the house had acquired a certain grandeur. He was uninterested, however, in the landscaping and development of his estate, and he was happy to leave these tasks to his younger son, Robert, and his brother, Edward, the future 2nd Earl and friend of William Ashford. On 26th August 1772 Robert Stratford wrote to his brother that he had got up his 'temple and little Mercury'. In this letter he added 'I have frequently attempted to make some improvements...but my Father, as often, Interrupts my Enterprise'. On his succession to the earldom, Edward Stratford vigorously continued with his improvements to Belan House and the estate. This vigour was sadly not emulated by future generations and Belan House has lain a ruin since the end of the nineteenth century. The temple, or rotunda, however, which Robert Stratford refers to, is still standing, sadly no longer surmounted with its statue of Mercury.

Ashford is known to have painted another view of Belan House in 1783 which was subsequently engraved by T. Milton. Belan House was also depicted by Francis Wheatley in his picture of Lord Aldborough on Pomposo, a Review in Belan Park (The National Trust, Waddesdon Manor).