IRISH TOPOGRAPHICAL ALBUM. A remarkable album of 108 original topographical drawings in a bespoke volume of 29 folios, with all but three of the leaves at the back carrying one or two drawings; these have been stuck to each page or to a fly-sheet attached to the page, executed during an extended tour of Ireland in 1840.

Forming an unpublished and highly important visual record of the country immediately prior to the Great Famine. Oblong quarto. Half purple morocco on green linen boards, titled in gilt on matching morocco label to upper cover ‘SKETCHES / IN IRELAND / 1840’. The artist, likely connected to the Bourke family, Earls of Mayo, at Palmerstown House, County Kildare, undertook a wide-ranging journey through Ulster, Connacht, Munster, and Leinster, recording both celebrated picturesque sites and a striking range of vernacular and inhabited landscapes. Most are executed on drawing paper (of varying size) and, despite light dust marks, occasional glue marks and some minor foxing, all are in very good to near fine condition. Each drawing is identified and dated (a later hand has copied this information in pencil, usually onto the page over the drawing, and with occasional mistranscription). Of the utmost rarity.

It is evident that the artist began sketching in July 1840 in the demesne around Palmerstown House, Kill, County Kildare, the seat of the Earls of Mayo, and from there set out northwards, first to Rostrevor, County Down, then a fashionable resort village on Carlingford Lough, then via Strangford and Portaferry to the north Antrim coast (Fair Head and the Giant’s Causeway). The next sketch is a street scene from ‘the hotel’ in Donegal town, then Rockingham near Boyle, before what appears to have been an extended vacation in County Mayo and west Galway. There are a large number of drawings of Achill Island, the Sound, Nangle’s Settlement, Coast Guard House, Panoramic View of the Regatta in Clew Bay, Murrisk Abbey - Clew Bay - the Reek, Joyce’s Country, Bundoreha, Clifden town, Clifton Regatta, Ballynakil Lake, Street in Clifden, from the Window in the Hotel in Maam, Castle Kirk on Hen’s Island, Hotel at Maam, Panoramic View of Lough Corrib, Oughterard, Inagh, Maam, followed by several around Cong. The artist then continued south to the Cliffs of Moher, Ennis, Quin Abbey, Castle Connel, then to west Limerick, Askeaton, Adare and Ballybunion, Adare Abbey, Adare Castle, before the inevitable stay in Killarney, Gap of Dunlo, Whiddy Island, Garnish Island, Mucross Abbey, Ross Island, Old Weir Bridge, Brickeen Bridge, Don Victoria Hotel. Then Bantry Bay, Glengariff, Gougane Barra, Glengariff Town, Glengariff Castle - Mr. Whytes, Whiddy Island, east to Blarney Castle, Cove, Myrtle Cottage, Youghal to Lismore, Mount Mellery, Holy Cross, Glengall Castle Cahir, Blenheim Lodge - Mrs. Sweetmans near Waterford, Cashel, followed by a visit to Waterford Harbour, Dunbrody, and returning north via stops in Kilkenny, Woodenbridge, Seven Churches Glendalough, The Suir, Powerscourt
The last drawings were made once again in the grounds of Palmerstown House and in nearby Johnstown in October/November 1840, plus a late one of and Bay of Dublin & Kingstown from the Obelisk, Killiney. The drawings have been placed in the album in rough but not precise date order. Some of the drawings are self-evidently quick sketches en plein air, with little artistry in the use of the pencil, but most have a more finished appearance and show signs of sophisticated pencil work. All suggest a keen eye. The album’s importance is three-fold: its contents are original drawings that have as far as is known never been published. Secondly, with the precise dating and full identification of each view, the album provides a unique window into various parts of rural Ireland immediately before the outbreak of the Great Famine. Thirdly, the artist in addition to sketching the familiar tourist sights (e.g. the Giant’s Causeway, Killarney, Blarney Castle) was unusual in drawing animated streetscapes and panoramic views of villages (e.g. Johnstown, County Kildare, Rostrevor, Donegal town, Clifden, Keel on Achill, Askeaton, Ballybunion, Killarney, Lismore and Cheekpoint, as well as documenting a variety of big houses and small vernacular buildings that caught the artist’s eye. The atmospheric sketches of the regattas on Clew Bay ‘near Westport’ (24 August) and near Clifden (28 August) are particularly remarkable, both visually and historically, as are the several drawings of housing on Achill, notably the clochán at Keel. The drawings of Palmerstown House, Glengariff Castle, Lismore Castle, the earl of Kingston’s shooting lodge, the new monastery at Mount Melleray, and Glenstall Castle probable all contain architectural details that are otherwise unknown. There is no information as to the identity of the artist, but it is reasonable to assume that she or he was a guest of, or, a relation of the Bourkes, Earl of Mayo family in County Kildare, was of a similar social standing, and had had some training in the art of drawing. One outlier in the album is the sketch of a Swiss mountain village, dated 1843, which is almost certainly by the same hand, but it suggests some stylistic development. Perhaps the artist was quite young. Particularly notable are the detailed depictions of Clew Bay regattas (August 1840), village life on Achill Island, including early representations of clochán structures, and a number of country houses and ecclesiastical buildings — Palmerstown House, Lismore Castle, Mount Melleray Abbey, and others — some of which may preserve architectural features otherwise undocumented. The careful dating and identification of each drawing enhances the album’s documentary value, offering a rare chronological itinerary through pre-Famine Ireland. Though the artist remains unidentified, the consistency of hand and evident technical competence suggest formal training and a cultivated eye, possibly that of a young amateur working within the Anglo-Irish landed milieu. A later drawing of a Swiss village (dated 1843) within the album suggests subsequent travel and artistic development. As a cohesive body of original, unpublished work, the album is of considerable significance for the study of Irish topography, social history, and visual culture in the early nineteenth century.

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