An exciting discovery of around 40 drawings and watercolours by Daniel Macdonald (1821-1853) will be exhibited at the Gorry Gallery in Dublin from March 28. They give a visual insight into life and society in Cork in the early 1840’s and demonstrate his empathy for the rural people of Ireland. Daniel Macdonald’s impressive graphic skills are demonstrated in images like Blindman’s Buff, Irish Jig-house, Apple Bobbing and The Day after the Fair. According to the catalogue note by Professor Niamh O’Sullivan, author of In the Lion’s Den: Daniel MacDonald, Ireland and Empire: “His crowd scenes are replete with detail, abound with energy and scintillate with wit, and the articulation of character and narrative is compelling”. A number of the drawings were executed on board the yacht Hebe in Cobh and date to 1843-44, just prior to his departure for London. His 1847 painting of An Irish Peasant Family discovering the Blight in their Store, shown at the British Institution, had the distinction until recently of being the only Irish painting that directly confronted the famine. “His paintings are without precedence, not only in the Irish and British canon, but in French art then considered the most radical of all”, Niamh O’Sullivan notes.
