A pair of views of Maynooth Castle, by William Ashford P.R.H.A. (1746-1824) comes up at Bonhams Old Master Paintings sale in London on July 4. These fresh to market works are from the collection of the Duke and Duchess of Leinster. Painted in the Anglo-Irish Romantic tradition, they were commissioned by William FitzGerald, 2nd Duke of Leinster.
Ashford, in a remarkably short space of time, had advanced from being a flower painter to becoming one of the most accomplished and sought-after view painters in Ireland. He was elected as the first President of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1823, the year before his death. Depicting the ruins of the former FitzGerald family seat, the ‘Views of Maynooth Castle’ are signed ‘W. Ashford’ and dated 1779 and 1780. In the Carton inventory of 1885 they were listed as hanging in the passage by the principle staircase of the residence. The paintings are estimated at £80,000 – 120,000.