Photo © Maxwell Photography
Press release 6/6/2017
The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife returns to permanent display in the refurbished National Gallery of Ireland following a conservation and research project funded by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Art Conservation Project
One of the most important and popular Irish paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland’s collection, The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife by Daniel Maclise (1806-1870), has returned to permanent display in the refurbished National Gallery of Ireland following an extensive period of conservation and research funded by Bank of America Merrill Lynch Art Conservation Project. A book on the painting’s conservation process is published to coincide with the reopening of the Gallery on 15th June.
Sean Rainbird, Director, National Gallery of Ireland:
“Daniel Maclise’s The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife returns to the resplendent Shaw Room following extensive conservation and research, thanks to the generous supported of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Their commitment to the project from inception to completion has allowed us to restore this wonderful Irish masterpiece and to publish a lavishly illustrated book on the process, making the findings available to a broader audience. The painting will once again impress and inspire our many visitors when we reopen our historic wings on 15th June.”
The conservation and research of the painting was one of 10 international projects that benefitted from the company’s funding.
Peter Keegan, Country Executive for Ireland at Bank of America Merrill Lynch:
“We are proud to have supported the conservation of Daniel Maclise’s iconic masterpiece through our global Art Conservation Project. We would like to thank the National Gallery of Ireland for their dedication to this project, which through their online resource, has recorded and documented the special processes involved in conserving this very important piece of Ireland’s history. Great interest has been generated both locally and internationally, enabling scholars from around the world to learn more about the techniques of Maclise. We are privileged to have been part of this fascinating journey.”
The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife was removed in 2010 from its home in the Shaw Room of the Gallery to undergo technical examination followed by extensive conservation conducted with the most up-to-date non-invasive procedures.
Simone Mancini, Head of Conservation, National Gallery of Ireland:
“The conservation of Maclise’s ‘The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife’ has been one of the most complex, challenging and rewarding projects undertaken by the Gallery’s Conservation Department. We are delighted to have available a publication on the project which documents in detail the process involved in conserving this celebrated Irish work in the collection.”
Presented to the Gallery by Sir Richard Wallace in 1879, The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife is the most-read Irish history painting in the National Gallery of Ireland’s collection. It is also one of the earliest paintings by an Irish artist acquired for the national collection. In keeping with its size, detail, and complex history, it has enthralled and fascinated the public for decades.
Dr Brendan Rooney, Curator of Irish Art, National Gallery of Ireland:
“The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife is a theatrical tour de force, a consummate display by an artist at the height of his powers and popularity. The conservation project that this publication celebrates, and the scholarly research closely related to it, contribute hugely to this ongoing process of discovery.”
The painting is displayed in the Shaw Room as part of the permanent collection and will be available to view from 15th June when the historic wings of the Gallery reopen to the public. Admission to the permanent collection is free. www.nationalgallery.ie
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Media Contacts:
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NOTES TO EDITORS:
Digital Images available from the Press Office [email protected]
Daniel Maclise (1806-1870)
Cork born Maclise’s technical ability was exceptional. His lifelong interest in antiquities began through his acquaintance with the antiquarian Richard Sainthill and folklorist Thomas Crofton Croker. He moved to London in 1826 and excelled at the Royal Academy. Maclise enjoyed a lengthy and successful career in England. Strong-willed and ambitious, Maclise identified, like many Irish nineteenth-century artists, writers and politicians, as both Irish and British, describing himself to his friend Charles Dickens as a ‘Cockneyfied Corkonian’.
The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife, 1854, oil on canvas, 315 x 515 cm
This monumental painting depicts the fulfilment of a pledge made by Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, to the Norman military adventurer Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow. Having lost his lands to rival lords as a consequence of tyrannical and immoral conduct, MacMurrough sought the support of King Henry II, who authorised him to approach troublesome lords on the Welsh borders. Among them was Strongbow, recently stripped of his main title Earl of Pembroke. MacMurrough promised Strongbow, in exchange for his assistance, not only succession to the Kingdom of Leinster after his death, but the hand of his daughter in marriage. On 23 August 1170, St Bartholomew’s Eve, Strongbow’s small but powerful force landed near Waterford, and proceeded to take the city with much bloodshed. Strongbow’s subsequent marriage to Aoife has come to be widely regarded as an event of the great political and symbolic significance, marking the establishment by the Normans of a formal foothold in Ireland.
TIMELINE
1834: The Palace of Westminster is destroyed by fire. The architect Charles Barry is chosen to design the new Houses of Parliament and a competition for the decoration of the new building is announced by the newly formed Fine Arts Commission. This competition calls for cartoon drawings ‘executed in chalk or charcoal…illustrating a subject from British History’, or from the works of Spencer, Shakespeare, or Milton’.
1847: The final selection of artists includes Daniel Maclise (1806-1870), Charles Cope (1811-1890), John Calcott Horsely (1817-1903) and William Dyce (1806-1864). They are commissioned to create easel paintings and frescos for the building. Maclise’s contribution, which ended up dominating twenty years of his life, consists of four frescos: The Spirit of Chivalry (1847); The Spirit of Justice (1849); The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after Waterloo (1861) and The Death of Nelson (1865).
1854: Maclise paints The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife as a study for another fresco in this series that was to be located in the Painted Chamber in the Houses of Parliament. He finds fresco to be a difficult and tiresome medium and hopes that the Fine Arts Commission would accept the oil painting in lieu of a fresco. The painting is favourably received when it is exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1854. When Maclise exhibited the work in 1854 at the Royal Academy, London, he assigned to it a lengthy title: ‘Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, surnamed Strongbow (sometimes also called Earl of Chepstow, or of Stigul) receives the hand of the Princess Eva from her father, Dermot McMurrough, King of Leinster, in fulfilment of his compact with that lord, and with promise of succession to his throne.’
1859: The Fine Arts Commission offers Maclise £1,500 for the painting, but they also request that the fresco version be completed. Maclise is not pleased with the price, nor with the suggested location for the fresco, and so decides to sell the painting to Lord Northwick who offers him £4,000. Following Lord Northwick’s death in 1859, the painting is sold at auction, along with Northwick’s extensive art collection.
1879: Sir Richard Wallace purchases the painting at Christie’s, London. Wallace, the son of the 4th Marquess of Hertford, owns a vast collection of art and is a Trustee of the National Gallery, London and a member of the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland, stating in a letter to Henry Doyle, Director 1869-92, that he hoped the painting would find a home on Irish soil.
1903: The painting is framed and hung in the new Portrait Gallery in the Dargan Wing of the National Gallery of Ireland
‘Iconic’ status
The painting’s ‘iconic’ status is a relatively recent development. For decades The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife resided rather anonymously in the Gallery’s collection, and the origins of its author were little appreciated. In 1908 Thomas Bodkin (director 1927-35) remarked that, despite the fact that Daniel Maclise was a well-known name, ‘it is not everyone who knows that he called himself an Irishman, [and] was born in Cork’. In 1942, Thomas MacGreevy (director 1950-63) dismissed the picture as an exercise in ‘unimaginative materialism’ that emphasised ‘mere archaeological superficialities’.
The inclusion by the National Gallery of Ireland of The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife in the exhibition Cuimhneachán 1916, which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising, represented at once a rehabilitation of the painting as a work of art, and an invitation to investigate its subject.
The analysis of the painting after 1966 was not wholly satisfactory but prevailed for several decades. In 1980, Gaelicising the Maclise’s female protagonist, known for over a century as ‘Eva’ now summarily became ‘Aoife’.
Within recent years, the history and character of Maclise’s Strongbow and Aoife has been assiduously and fruitfully re-examined. This interrogation has assigned to the painting a more complex identity.
About the National Gallery of Ireland
Established in 1854 by an Act of Parliament, the National Gallery of Ireland is one of Europe’s earliest public art galleries. It houses a collection of over 16,300 works of art spanning the history of Western European art from early Renaissance to the present day. Among the highlights are Spanish works by Velázquez, Murillo and Goya, Italian masterpieces by Mantegna, Titian, Caravaggio and Guercino, French paintings by Poussin, Chardin and Bonnard, Dutch masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh, and works by eminent British artists including Hogarth, Gainsborough and Reynolds. The Gallery’s most prominent holdings relate to the Irish collection with works by Daniel Maclise, Thomas Roberts, Roderic O’Conor, John Lavery, William Orpen, Mainie Jellett, Paul Henry and Jack B. Yeats. The Gallery is also home to the National Portrait Collection and extensive research collections such as the Denis Mahon Library & Archive, the Yeats Archive, the William Orpen Archive and the Centre for the Study of Irish Art. www.nationalgallery.ie
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About Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s programme of arts support reflects our belief that the arts matter. They help economies to thrive and individuals to connect with each other across cultures, and they educate and enrich societies. Our commitment to the arts is a key element of our responsible growth. Around the world, we support not-for-profit arts institutions that deliver both the visual and performing arts which provide inspirational educational programmes, open access for all communities, create jobs, and are pathways to greater cultural understanding. Learn more at www.bankofamerica.com/about, and connect with us on Twitter @BofAML