Daniel Maclise

Daniel Maclise (1806–1870) was born in Cork, the son of a Scottish soldier turned tanner and shoemaker, and studied at the Cork School of Art. A sketch of Sir Walter Scott that he made and lithographed in 1825 brought him portrait commissions, and after saving his own money he moved to London in 1827, entering the Royal Academy schools the following year. He became an associate of the Academy in 1835 and a full member in 1840. He painted history and literary subjects from Shakespeare, Goldsmith and Le Sage, portraits of friends including Dickens, whose Christmas books he illustrated, and The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife, now in the National Gallery of Ireland. His largest undertaking was at the rebuilt Palace of Westminster, where he painted murals for the House of Lords from 1846 and then The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher and The Death of Nelson, learning the water-glass technique in Berlin to complete them. The strain told on his health; in 1865 he declined the presidency of the Royal Academy, and he died at his home in Chelsea in 1870. Here: The Spirit of Chivalry.