Daniel Maclise

Maclise was born in Cork, Ireland (then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland), the son of Alexander McLish (also known as McLeish, McLish, McClisse or McLise), a tanner or shoemaker, but formerly a Scottish Highlander soldier. His education was of the plainest kind, but he was eager for culture, fond of reading, and anxious to become an artist. His father, however, placed him in employment, in 1820, in Newenham's Bank, where he remained for two years, before leaving to study at the Cork School of Art. In 1825 it happened that Sir Walter Scott was travelling in Ireland, and young Maclise, having seen him in a bookseller's shop, made a surreptitious sketch of the great man, which he afterwards lithographed. It became very popular, and led to many commissions for portraits, which he executed, in pencil.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Various influential friends recognised Maclise's genius and promise, and were anxious to furnish him with the means of studying in London; but refusing all financial assistance, he saved the money himself and arrived in the capital on 18 July 1827. There he made a sketch of Charles John Kean, the actor, which, like his portrait of Scott, was lithographed and published, making the artist a considerable sum. He entered the Royal Academy schools in 1828, eventually being awarded the highest prizes open to students.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Maclise exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1829 at Somerset House. Gradually he began to confine himself more exclusively to subject and historical pictures, varied occasionally by portraits – such as those of Lord Campbell, novelist Letitia Landon, Dickens, and other of his literary friends.

In 1833, he exhibited two pictures which greatly increased his reputation, and in 1835 the Chivalric Vow of the Ladies and the Peacock procured his election as associate of the Academy, of which he became full member in 1840. {{sfn|Monkhouse|1885–1900}}

The years that followed were occupied with a long series of figure pictures, deriving their subjects from history and tradition and from the works of Shakespeare, Goldsmith and Le Sage.

He also designed illustrations for several of Dickens's Christmas books and other works. Between the years 1830 and 1836 he contributed to Fraser's Magazine, under the pseudonym of Alfred Croquis, a remarkable series of portraits of the literary and other celebrities of the time – character studies, etched or lithographed in outline, and touched more or less with the emphasis of the caricaturist, which were afterwards published as the Maclise Portrait Gallery (1871).Maclise, Daniel & Bates, William. [https://archive.org/details/macliseportraitg00macl The Maclise portrait-gallery of "illustrious literary characters" etc.] (London: Chatto and Windus, 1883) During the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament in London in 1834–1850 by Charles Barry, Maclise was commissioned in 1846 to paint murals in the House of Lords on such subjects as Justice and Chivalry.[http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/daniel-maclise/the-spirit-of-chivalry--sketch-/2776 The spirit of chivalry] (Art in Parliament).The complex history surrounding the decoration is best summarized by

T. S. R. Boase, The Decorations of the New Palace of Westminster 1841–1863, in: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 17:1954, pp. 319–358.

In 1858, Maclise commenced one of the two great monumental works of his life, The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of Waterloo, on the walls of Westminster Palace.[http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/daniel-maclise/the-meeting-of-wellington-and-blucher-after-the-battle-of-waterloo/3246 The Meeting of Wellington and Blucher after the Battle of Waterloo] (Art in Parliament). It was begun in fresco, a process which proved unmanageable. The artist wished to resign the task, but, encouraged by Prince Albert, he studied in Berlin the new method of water-glass painting, and carried out the subject and its companion, The Death of Nelson, in that medium, completing the latter painting in 1864.

Maclise's vast painting of The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife (1854) hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.[http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/arts-literature/art-artists/daniel-maclise-%281806-1870/the-marriage-of-strongbow/ The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife] ("Ask about Ireland"). It portrays the marriage of the main Norman conqueror of Ireland "Strongbow" to the daughter of his Gaelic ally. The painting is said to relate Maclise's nationalist feelings and his knowledge of ancient, Irish, civilization.{{cite book |last=De Breffny |first=Brian |author-link= |date=1983 |title=Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia |url= |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |page=148 |isbn=}}

By the grand staircase of Halifax Town Hall, which was completed in 1863, there is a wall painting by Maclise.Wall painting by Maclise in Halifax Town Hall.[https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1314024 English Heritage National Monuments Record: description of Halifax Town Hall, mentioning Maclise wall painting.]

The intense application which he gave to these great historic works, and various circumstances connected with the commission, had a serious effect on the artist's health. He began to shun the company in which he formerly delighted, his old buoyancy of spirits was gone, and when, in 1865, the presidency of the Royal Academy was offered to him he declined the honour. He died of acute pneumonia on 25 April 1870 at his home 4 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.{{sfn|Monkhouse|1885–1900}}{{cite web |title=Settlement and building: Artists and Chelsea Pages 102-106 A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol12/pp102-106 |website=British History Online |publisher=Victoria County History, 2004 |access-date=21 December 2022}}

His works are distinguished by powerful intellectual and imaginative qualities, but, in the opinion of Monkhouse, a late Victorian critic, somewhat marred by harsh and dull colouring, by metallic hardness of surface and texture, and by frequent touches of the theatrical in the action and attitudes of the figures. His fame rests most securely on his two greatest works at Westminster.{{sfn|Monkhouse|1885–1900}}

A memoir of Maclise, by his friend William Justin O'Driscoll, was published in 1871.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

The works of Maclise in portraiture were celebrated in 1972 at an exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/daniel-maclise-waterloo-cartoon-royal-academy-review/ telegraph.co.uk: "Daniel Maclise: The Waterloo Cartoon, Royal Academy, review: 'fascinating'"], 1 Sep 2015

The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland, Maclise's native city, held a major exhibition of his works, Daniel Maclise: Romancing the Past (28 October 2008 - 14 February 2009), opened by David Puttnam.Daniel Maclise 1806–1870 Romancing the Past, ed. Peter Murray; Gandon Editions, Kinsale 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-948037-66-5}}

The preliminary sketch for The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher was displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts from 2 September 2015 to 3 January 2016, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.[https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/maclisewaterloo royalacademy.org: "Daniel Maclise's cartoon for 'The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher' is a preparatory drawing on an epic scale."] It had been displayed previously from 23 May until 23 August at the Royal Armouries in Leeds as part of the Waterloo 1815: The Art of Battle exhibition.

File:William Harrison Ainsworth by Daniel Maclise.jpg|Portrait of William Harrison Ainsworth, 1834

File:Daniel Maclise Henry VIIIs first interview with Anne Boleyn.jpg|Henry VIII's First Meeting with Anne Boleyn, 1835

File:Daniel Maclise (1806-70) - A Scene from Gil Blas - RCIN 407173 - Royal Collection.jpg|A Scene from Gil Blas, 1839

File:Charles Dickens by Daniel Maclise.jpg|Portrait of Charles Dickens, 1839

File:Daniel Maclise (1806-1870) - Robin Hood and His Merry Men Entertaining Richard the Lionheart in Sherwood Forest - NCM 1984-400 - Nottingham Museums.jpg|Robin Hood and His Merry Men Entertaining Richard the Lionheart in Sherwood Forest, 1839

File:The Origin of the Harp.png|The Origin of the Harp, 1842

File:Caxton Showing the First Specimen of His Printing to King Edward IV at the Almonry, Westminster.jpg|Caxton Showing the First Specimen of His Printing to King Edward IV, 1851

File:Marriage of strongbow and aoife.jpg|The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife, 1854

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Attribution

• {{cite DNB |last= Monkhouse|first=William |wstitle=Maclise,_Daniel}}
• {{EB1911 |wstitle=Maclise, Daniel |volume=17 |pages=262-263}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{Art UK bio}}
• {{Gutenberg author | id=38926| name=Daniel Maclise}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Daniel Maclise}}
• [https://www.parliament.uk/about/art-in-parliament/online-exhibitions/historic-events/daniel-maclises-waterloo/ Maclise on the UK Parliament website]
• [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/maclise_daniel.html Daniel Maclise online] (Artcyclopedia)
• [http://www.artnet.com/artist/633512/daniel-maclise.html Daniel Maclise on Artnet]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111006063727/http://www.drawpaintsculpt.com/artist-biographies/daniel-maclise/ Daniel Maclise biography] (London atelier of representational art)
• [http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/irish-artists/daniel-maclise.htm Daniel maclise biography] (Encyclopedia of Irish and World Art)
• [http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=804 Daniel Maclise at Art Renewal Center]
• [http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/full/person.html&_IXTRAIL_=Academicians&person=5785 Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections]
• An engraving by P Lightfoot of {{ws|The Hall of Glennaquoich—A Highland Feat}} for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.

{{Daniel Maclise|state=expanded}}

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Category:1806 births

Category:1870 deaths

Category:19th-century Irish painters

Category:Irish male painters

Category:19th-century painters of historical subjects

Category:Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery

Category:Irish fantasy artists

Category:Irish people of Scottish descent

Category:Irish muralists

Category:Artists from County Cork

Category:Irish portrait painters

Category:Royal Academicians

Category:Irish emigrants to the United Kingdom

Category:Alumni of Cork Institute of Technology

Category:19th-century British male artists

Category:19th-century Irish male artists