12.11.2024, 18:30 P.M.
Hugh Douglas Hamilton’s The Cries of Dublin (1760) Revisited by William Laffan, art dealer and editor.
This is the sixth talk in the Irish Georgian Society and Dublin City Council's talk series, Depicting Dublin: understanding Dublin’s architecture, urban morphology and social history through maps, prints, drawings and photographs.
ABSTRACT: The rediscovery in Australia in 2002 of Hugh Douglas Hamilton’s Cries of Dublin (1760) was described by Anne Crookshank and the Knight of Glin as one of the ‘most sensational events in the historiography of Irish art in recent decades’. Toby Barnard, meanwhile, wrote ‘immediately a misty world was clarified'. These seemingly unmediated drawings of Dublin street-life offered a realistic and sensitive delineation of the poor so largely excluded from art of the period. The talk will explore the drawings and their contexts for what they reveal about Georgian Dublin.
BIOGRAPHY: William Laffan is an art dealer and historian. In 2003 he edited the first edition of Hugh Douglas Hamilton’s The Cries of Dublin. Most recently he curated an exhibition at Dublin Castle, Thomas Frye, an Irish Artist in London (2023-24).
IMAGE: A Shoeboy at Custom House Gate from Hugh Douglas Hamilton's The Cries of Dublin (1760) Private collection.
Talks take place at 6.30pm in the Irish Georgian Society's City Assembly House, 58 South William Street, Dublin 2. Talk subscribers can also choose to watch the talks live online. A zoom link to watch the talk live will be issued the day before each talk. Additionally, all talk subscribers will be issued with a recording of the talk the day after, which they can watch for a further two-week period.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This talk is part of the Irish Georgian Society's Conservtion Education Programme which is supported by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Society also wishes to thank Dublin City Council's Heritage Office for partnering on this talk series, and The Heritage Council for their support of the Irish Georgian Society.
If you are interested in other talks relating to architecture, check out the Ireland Architecture Diary.
