Now installed on the first-floor landing of the former Bishop’s Palace in Waterford City, this is a detail of a pine chimneypiece carved c.1758 by John Kelly for the Dublin residence of artist Robert West. Not to be confused with the near-contemporaneous stuccodore of the same name, West was born in Waterford, the son of an alderman, and trained in Paris, seemingly with both Boucher and van Loo before returning to Ireland and establishing a school of drawing in Dublin. By the mid-1740s, this was being subsidised by the Dublin Society, with premiums offered to students by Samuel Madden and annual exhibitions of their work held in the House of Lords. Unfortunately West became mentally ill in 1763 and had to be replaced as head of the school; he returned briefly to the position in 1770 before dying the same year.
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Fabulous carving! I wonder if he could be the author of some of the great carved mahogany from that period. Do you know if he ever carved furniture? What an education he had!
My fourth great grandfather Rev. Gabriel Stokes was Chancellor of Waterford Cathedral so I expect he was familiar with these.
HI Teresa, I’m distantly related to you:
My father Nicholas Cole McClintock, CBE
His father Col Robert Singleton McClintock, DSO
His mother Annette Elizabeth Delap
Her father Robert Foster Delap
His mother Catherine Foster
Her father Rt Rev William Foster Bishop of Clogher
Margaret Foster
Her husband Rev Henry Maxwell, Bishop of Meath
His brother Barry Maxwell, 1st Earl of Farnham
His daughter Anne Maxwell
Her husband Col. Richard Fox
His mother Mary Edgeworth
Her brother Richard Lovell Edgeworth
His daughter Lucy Jane
Her husband Rev (John) Thomas Romney Rob
His daughter Mary Susanna
Her husband Sir George Stokes, 1st Bt
His father Rev Gabriel Stokes
A bit complicated!
Stunning.
Absolutely delicious!