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Irish School, early 19th century VIEW OF DUBLIN ALONG THE LIFFEY FROM VICTORIA QUAY, DEPICTING TH...

Currency:EUR Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA
Irish School, early 19th century VIEW OF DUBLIN ALONG THE LIFFEY FROM VICTORIA QUAY, DEPICTING TH...
Irish School, early 19th century
VIEW OF DUBLIN ALONG THE LIFFEY FROM VICTORIA QUAY, DEPICTING THE WATLING STREET
AND QUEEN STREET BRIDGES AND THE FOUR COURTS BEYOND
oil on canvas
30 by 36cm., 12 by 14in.
In this journeyman artist’s rendering of the view along Dublin’s Liffey from the
westernmost extremity of the Liffey quays - the site of the Guinness Brewery -
we have a charming and historically interesting work. The large mock-medieval
gateway - at the southern foot of the Watling Street Bridge - was erected in
1812. Designed by Francis Johnson, it was known as the Richmond Tower, after the
Duke of Richmond. By the mid 1840s however, when the new railway station opened
at King’s Bridge (now Heuston Station), traffic along the quays increased and
the tower gate was deemed an obstruction. Thus it was moved circa 1846 to its
present location at the western entrance to the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham.
Also visible in the painting is an early version of Watling Street Bridge (later
replaced with a flat bridge to accommodate traffic) and the elegantly curved,
three-arched Queen Street bridge, with its distinctive balustraded parapet and
granite niches, still in evidence today. In the foreground a barge pushes off
shore, laden with barrels which are more than likely from the Guinness brewery
and would have been floated downstream to be loaded onto larger ships.
€3,000-€5,000 (£2,100-£3,500 sterling approx.)