CAROLAN. Engraved portrait depicting Turlough Carolan, the Celebrated Blind Bard. Half length portrait, to left, depicting him seated, playing the harp, with long curly hair, wearing coat with turned-back cuffs, ruffled shirt sleeves.

Engraver’s imprint at lower margin. Dublin: Published as the Act directs by J. Martyn, 24 Lower Ormond Quay, Novr. 12th, 1822. Quarto. [305 x 230mm]. Contemporary plate mark visible. Some light creasing and marginal wear, consistent with age; image strong and well-inked. A very good example.
The engraving is from a painting that was in the possession of Mr. Hardiman, author of the History of Galway. Dedicated ‘To His Excellency the Marquess Wellesley, K.G., Lord Lieutenant &c.’ This Print (by permission) is most respectfully Inscribed’ by John Martyn. Engraving attributed to John Martyn after an original painting by Johan Van Der Hagen.
A fine early nineteenth-century engraved portrait of Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738), the last and most celebrated of the great Irish harper-composers. Carolan occupies a unique position in Irish cultural history, bridging the native Gaelic bardic tradition and European Baroque musical forms. Blind from childhood, he travelled widely under the patronage of Ireland’s Gaelic Lords and Old English gentry, composing hundreds of airs, many dedicated to his hosts, which remain central to the Irish traditional repertoire. This engraving, published in Dublin by John Martyn in 1820 and based on an earlier painted likeness associated with James Hardiman, reflects the renewed antiquarian and nationalist interest in Ireland’s cultural inheritance in the early nineteenth century. Portrait engravings of Carolan from this period are increasingly rare and are highly sought after by collectors of Irish music, folklore, and visual culture.
John Martyn (fl. c.1805-1830) was an excellent engraver who for many years worked successfully in Dublin, principally as a book-illustrator. According to an advertisement issued by him (Freeman’s Journal, Oct., 1814), “he studied many years in London under the first artists.” Plates by him will be found in the Hibernian Magazine, the Cyclopedian Magazine and Exshaw’s London Magazine. In the latter, for 1794, is a good engraving, ‘A Father’s Advice to his Son,’ drawn and engraved by Martyn. Hardiman’s History of Galway contains four plates by him, and he also engraved this portrait of “Torlogh Carolan,” the Irish bard, published in 1822; “Michael Dwyer, the Wicklow Desperado”; “Rev. Dr. Betagh,” Henry Grattan, Lord Kilwarden, etc. He died in his house in Fownes Street on 11th January, 1828.

[CAT 163]