Irish Arts Review

All the Fun of the Fair: Images of Donnybrook Fair by Glew and WatsonAuthor(s): Brendan RooneySource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 19, No. 1 (Summer, 2002), pp. 100-104Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25502842 .

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PAINTING

All the Fun of the Fair

Images of Don ny brook Fair by G lew and Watson

Did Edward Glew's painting

of the colourful but

notorious Donnybrook Fair

borrow too much from

Samuel Watson's earlier

study of the same subject?

BRENDAN ROONEY

certainly thinks so.

In 1870, the Irish artist, Edward Lees Glew (1817-70), published Life in Dublin or Donnybrook Fair in

its Palmiest Days in Newark, New Jersey.1 In this sixty-eight page book, Glew provides an entertaining,

albeit selective, history of Dublin, a lengthy account of the development of Donnybrook Fair, and a

detailed description of his painting of that subject and its reception in the United States. Glew's style is

anecdotal and also polemical, as the text is interspersed with various political comments and asides. It is

not a manifesto, however, but essentially a vehicle for self-promotion, as the final self-congratulatory pages

present reprints of positive American reviews of his own painting entitled Donnybrook Fair (Fig 1) which

inspired the book. But what Glew fails to acknowledge is that his painting is, in fact, an embellishment of

a work (Fig 3) completed nearly two decades earlier by his compatriot, Samuel Watson (1818-67).

Biographical information about Glew is scarce.2 He was born in Dublin on 3 May 1817 and attended

Trinity College, but left university to become a portrait painter without completing his degree. It is not

known where, or from whom, he received his artistic training, but it may have been on the Continent.3 By

1849 he was sufficiently established to have six paintings, four of them watercolours, exhibited at the Royal

Hibernian Academy. However, this was also the last time he was to exhibit there as, within a couple of years,

he moved to Walsall in the English midlands. He founded a newspaper in Birmingham and, in 1856, pub

lished A History of the Borough and Foreign of Walsall, in the County of Stafford* He may also have worked in

Scotland. Glew subsequently moved to America, practising as a painter in New York, Philadelphia, Trenton,

and Newark where he died on 9 October 1870. In America, he contributed to the 'Saddle Bags' section of

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW SIMMER 2002

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the Northern Monthly Magazine and produced a series of works

entitled 'Pen and Ink Sketches' which were illustrated in the

Trenton Monitor. He appears to have been well regarded in

America and was described by a journalist with the Gazette and

Republican (10 Aug 1865) as 'courteous and obliging'. The fair at Donnybrook, which dated back to the 13th

century, commenced each year on 26 August and ran officially

for eight days.5 However, the Lord Mayor had the prerogative to

extend its duration, and festivities in the 19th century frequently

continued for over two weeks until 1837, when Lord Mayor

William Hodges restricted it to one week, excluding the

Sabbath.6 It drew huge crowds from all over the country and

served as an important occasion for the sale of livestock and

wares as well as the provision of entertainment. Contemporary

sources record that it was common practice for patrons to don

their finest clothes when visiting the fair and to indulge zealously

in the variety of food, drink, and entertainment available.

However, alcohol, high spirits, and a general disregard for

authority often led to unruly celebration and Donnybrook

eventually became identified with excess and abandon.

It was this chaos that Watson and, in turn, Glew attempted to

capture in their paintings. The apparent alacrity with which the

brawling men in Watson's painting make use of sticks (shillelaghs)

is alarming, but consistent with accounts of the excesses of the

fair.7 The press could be relied upon to emphasise more extreme

incidents, with headlines such as 'Riot at Donnybrook Fair' and

'A Drunken Man Eaten Up in a Great Measure by a Pig', which

appeared in The Times in August 1799 and February 1833 respec

tively. Though Glew contends that it was unusual for a fight to

'spread any sensation beyond the circle to which it was confined',

newspapers record that many became extremely violent and in

some cases resulted in serious injury and death. Glew claims that

a fight at the fair was 'regarded as an indispensable pastime' and

views such behaviour as, in effect, beyond censure. He talks with

mirth of regular bouts between executives of the law and 'the

McDonald men, or "mud-islanders'",8 which were considered

to be opportunities to settle scores. Other brawls were entirely

gratuitous, Glew stating that the character in his painting who

takes off his jacket as a challenge to fight does so lest he becomes

'blue mouldy for the want of a batin".9

Glew reflects in his text that at Donnybrook Fair, 'whiskey and

witticism, courting and cudgelling, frolic and fisticuff here reigned

supreme' and that ...to wend one's way through the motley crowds

amid the forest of tents, peep-shows, merry-go-rounds, unhitched donkey

carts, fruit stands, toy stands, impromptu cooking arrangements, and

all the other concomitants of an Irish fair, and at the same time escape

a kick from some irascible jack-ass, a trip up from some bewildered

"grunter, "

or a scalding from the steaming cauldrons of corned beef and

cabbage, which spread out in every direction, was a task by no means

easy to accomplish, especially so, when accompanied by the incessant

and deafening din arising from countless gongs, fifes, bag pipes, fiddles,

blowing of horns, croaking of ballad mongers, and the hoarse shoutings

of rival mountebanks...]0

Watson's picture provided Glew with a carefully-composed

model on which to base his own painting. He may have held

Watson in high regard and it is

interesting to note similarities

in their subject matter beyond

Donnybrook Fair. Watson, an

accomplished engraver and

book illustrator,11 produced

lithographs of a number of

Irish nationalist figures includ

ing William Smith O'Brien, Kevin O'Doherty, John

Mitchel, and Charles Gavan

Duffy.12 Glew himself produced a group portrait, exhibited at

the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1849, of the leaders of

the Irish Confederation in

council13 which featured both

Mitchel14 and Smith O'Brien

(Fig 2). The individual portraits in that painting were based

on daguerrotypes by Leon

Gluckman, lithographs of

which were produced by James

Henry and published in 1848.15

It is likely that Glew saw

Watson's A Scene at Donnybrook

Fair at the Royal Hibernian

Academy in Dublin, where it

was exhibited in 1846. It was

an impressive and elaborate view, probably unsurpassed in

ambition until Erskine Nicol exhibited his picture of the same

subject at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1860.

Glew's claims for the accuracy of his painting are unsound in

two respects. Firstly, though he almost certainly drew on personal

experience when working on Donnybrook Fair, the picture was

fundamentally based on Samuel Watson's observations, not his

own. Secondly, it is likely that Watson himself was somewhat

circumspect in his handling of the subject. A large number of

Irish painters and illustrators turned their attention to

Glew claims that a

fight at the fair was

'regarded as an

indispensable

pastime' and views

such behaviour

as, in effect,

beyond censure.

1 Edward Lees G lew

(1817-1870):

Donnybrook Fair, 1865. Oil on canvas.

104 x 161 cm.

(Private Collection)

2 Edward Lees Glew:

Leaders of the Irish

Confederation, exh

RHA, 1849. Oil on

canvas. 63 x 76 cm.

(National Gallery of Ireland)

al

SUMMER 2002 IRISH ARTS REVIEW

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ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIR: IMAGES OF DONNYBROOK FAIR BY GLEW AND WATSON

Donnybrook Fair during the first half of the 19th century.16 Scenes of festive bonhomie, typically juxtaposed with debauchery

and chaos, satisfied a growing appetite for genre subjects in

Ireland. William Sadler,17 Daniel Maclise, c.182618 and George

Victor du Noyer,19 produced complex images of the fair, as did

Francis Wheatley and Samuel Lover. Erskine Nicol chose the fair

as the subject for a number of paintings, including A Shebeen at

Donnybrook (1851),20 his monumental Donnybrook Fair (1859), and

Whistling and Whittling (1855)21 in which a poster in the back

ground announces the abolition of the event. Artists were

evidently drawn to the variety of individuals visible there and the

vigour and comedy of their activity.

Glew obviously adopted the overall composition from

Watson's painting22 but introduced significant extra detail into the

right-hand foreground and omitted,

Ultimately, Glew

combined types and typical events,

which he extracted

from Watson's

model with new

elements, which he

found particularly

interesting, or

thought had

particular

significance for

Dublin and the fair.

or amended, some of the local

detail, such as Donnybrook

Church.23 For the comic and dra

matic, as distinct from journalistic

detail, Glew relies heavily on

Watson24 and makes little or no

changes to Watson's most animated

protagonists. He retains, for exam

ple, the figure in the centre who

recoils from a blow to the chin

with arms outstretched and a dog

tugging at his coat-tails and the

character who leaps from or over a

cart on the right of the composition

as well as the rather dishevelled fig

ure who delves in his pocket for

money to buy a couple of pigs from

an aproned vendor. Glew re-inter

prets other figures, making the

woman in the foreground of

Watson's picture who flees a brawl

(holding a glass in her outstretched

hand) come to the assistance of the

person who tumbles over a ram

pant pig. Further back, an old man

playing a fairground game in

Watson's picture is supplanted in Glew's by the pathetic figure of

'a wooden-legged pensioner ... engaged in shooting at a target for

hazel nuts.'25 Other figures receive similar treatment.26

Seamas O Maiti? has pointed out that by the 1840s signs at the fair with political content 'usually proclaimed that the

proprietor was a repealer.'27 This is certainly true of the images

of O'Connell that appear with equal prominence in Watson's

and Glew's paintings.28 Portraits of O'Connell, the celebrated

champion of Catholic Emancipation (achieved in 1829), were ubiquitous in 19th-century Ireland and represented a

significant part of what Fergus O'Fer rail has referred to as the

'O'Connell industry'.29

In Life in Dublin, Glew expands upon narratives that are not

obvious in the painting. He explains, for instance, that the two

most prominent figures in the tent to the left dance to the

celebrated Donnybrook jig, played by a 'characteristic blind

harper' and a 'half-boozy "ould boy" on the fiddle'.30 He also says

that a young man at the entrance to the tent 'tenderly opposes'

the 'bashful scruples' of his fianc?e by encouraging her to accept

another gentleman's invitation to dance.31 The young boys in the

foreground on the left engage in a game of 'prodding' for corned

beef and cabbage, while the figure who leans against the entrance

of the tent on the left plays the 'trump' or 'jew's harp' which Glew

claims was a favourite instrument among the youth of Dublin.

Glew even makes room for such unlikely characters as 'Peggy the

man', a milk vendor from Harold's Cross of uncertain gender,

who carries milk cans on the left of the picture.32 Young 'horse

boys' behind the tent play 'pitch and toss',33 while 'Oney', an older

gent whose expressed mission in life was to attend funerals,

stands in the foreground wearing a linen apron and ribboned

top-hat and holds a lone white cane which he assumed would sig

nify the importance of his role. In the foreground on the right

Zozimus (alias Mike Moran), a travelling composer, balladeer, and

raconteur, holds forth to a small but zealous audience, one of

whom, a young fruit-seller, is so absorbed that he drops his

wares.34 The indistinct character in the top hat and swallowtail

coat who stands at the shooting gallery with his back to the viewer

is, according to Glew, another well-known Dublin eccentric called

'Hewey. Glew mentions a number of amusements available to the

public, such as the 'Trick o' the loop' (taking place on a barrel in

the right foreground) and the 'Thimble rig (on the extreme right), both of which involved tricking gullible members of the public out of a ha'penny. Behind these, 'Sporting Molly from County

Down' sits behind her roulette wheel among her patrons, who

include 'Tibby-Tight Tisdall', the figure leaning forward with his

hands under his coat-tails.

Calvert's Royal Theatre, the sign for which is easily legible in

both paintings, was notorious for providing its audience with

vigorous rather than subtle performances of Shakespeare.35 These

elaborate travelling theatres became characteristic of the fair and

often featured raised platforms or balconies from which the

dramatis personae could attract their audience. Glew identifies

the figures of Hamlet, who leans against the rails to the right, in

his 'conventional cloak and hat with nodding plumes', the king

and queen 'in their glittering crowns and tawdry robes of state',

and Ophelia (on the left-hand side of the theatre front) who 'endeavors [sic] to sustain exhausted nature by diving into a

pot of "brown stout"'.36

Watson may well have included portraits of Donnybrook char

acters in his painting of 1842, but left no means of identifying

them. Glew, in contrast, describes many in detail. Just inside the

entrance to Paddy Kelly's tent on the right, the artist tells us,

the blind musician, Patrick Byrne, plays the harp. This tent, a

'rendezvous for all the literatteurs, wits and notables of the day'37

was an annual feature of the fair 38

and its introduction is Glew's

single most significant divergence from Watson's model. It not

only balances the composition, but it also provides Glew with the

opportunity to include portraits of some significant social and

political figures in Dublin. 'Cantering Jack', who was renowned

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4

t?34- IM. 01

WT

44?

for his ability to run alongside mail coaches over long distances,

is obscured by Thomas Steele and Thomas Reynolds, the city

marshal,39 who are deep in conversation. 'Honest Tom Steele'

(1788-1848), as he became known, from County Clare, was a

Protestant landowner and soldier who in 1823 became a trench

ant supporter of Catholic emancipation and a close associate of

O'Connell.40 Significantly, by including him in the painting, Glew

necessarily dates the scene to before 1848. The portrait is specu

lative, or at least posthumous, which mitigates further Glew's

claims of authenticity. Representing the literary and artistic

community are the writer, William Carleton and the painter,

poet, and writer, Samuel Lover, who sit at a table just inside the

entrance to the tent. Carleton (1794-1869), born in Tyrone but

subsequently based in Dublin, wrote a number of books, such as

Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry (1832) which was seen as a

perspicacious analysis of the character of the Irish peasant and

was widely praised.

Ultimately, Glew combined types and typical events, which he

extracted from Watson's model with new elements, which he

found particularly interesting, or thought had particular signifi

cance for Dublin and the fair. The painting was exhibited in

March 1865 at the Grand Banquet of The Knights of St Patrick at

the Metropolitan Hotel, New York. Hanging above the speaker's

rostrum and lit with bright gas-jets, it was 'the most prominent

object in the hall'41 and commanded the attention of the large

number of journalists who reported on the event. Glew later

showed the painting at the Chicago Sanitary Fair, then in his

rooms at 21 East State Street, Trenton in July, and next at the

Annual Prize Exhibition of the Philadelphia Sketch Club, held at

the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts in December. He therefore

addressed an audience which he assumed would have no access to

Watson's picture or knowledge of any print after it42 and would

have had no reason to worry that the vagaries of the late 20th

century art market should place the two pictures before the

public for the first time and thus expose his deceit.43 In 1870, the

picture was in the possession of E D Bassford of the Cooper

Institute, New York, who purchased it without the knowledge of

the artist44 and valued it 'at no less than $12,000',45 This incident

prompted Glew to undertake the production of a 'mammoth

picture' of Donnybrook Fair, 'spread' according to the Newark

Morning Register (6 April 1870) 'over nearly sixty-four feet of

canvas'. It is unclear whether the painting, based on the exhibited

version, was completed before the artist's death.

Admittedly, at one point in Life in Dublin, Glew does confess

to taking liberties with his design. By depicting students from

Trinity College, who fight 'their natural antagonists, the coal

3 Samuel Watson

(1818-1867): A Scene at

Donnybrook Fair, 1847. Oil on

canvas. 130 x 213 cm. (Private

Collection)

(Courtesy of

Sotheby's)

SUMMER 2002 IRISH ARTS REVIEW |

103

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porters',46 in their collegiate caps, he says that he was merely

taking advantage of the 'licence afforded to poets and painters'.47

However, this admission seems distinctly disingenuous when one

realises that a fight between 'town and gown',48 as Glew calls it,

takes place in the same part of Watson's composition and in that

case too, the students don mortar-boards.49

Glew's painting is well-executed and impressive, but strangely

unconvincing. Though Glew was by no means the first artist to

quote from another, few flaunted their plagiarism with such

audacity. Life in Dublin or Donnybrook Fair in its Palmiest Days is an

extraordinary exercise in self-aggrandisement. By comparing

Glew's painting favourably with Daniel Maclise's Snap-Apple

Night, David Wilkie's Penny Wedding and, even more improbably,

William Powell Frith's Derby Day, the American journalists cited

in Glew's text indulge the artist's fiction. On the other hand,

perhaps one should admire his opportunism and the confidence

with which he presents an Irish subject on a grand scale to an

American audience. S?amas O Maiti? has asserted that 'there

was a sense in which the Fair Green became a set on which the

fair-goers themselves became actors.'50 It might be said that it also

provided Glew with the opportunity for a grand performance.

Brendan Rooney is Research Fellow at the National Gallery of Ireland and the

author, with Nicola Figgis, of Irish Paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland

(2001), reviewed in this issue.

1 A copy of Glew's book is held in Yale University

Library. The author is extremely grateful to the

Yale Library for making the text available and to

the staff of the New York Public Library for their

assistance in tracing the book.

2 One relies on W Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish

Artists (Dublin 1913) and Glew's own comments.

3 A correspondent with the Trenton Monitor (31

July 1865) maintains that Glew was 'a graduate of

the best European Schools of Art', but does not

specify which.

4 Walter Strickland mistakenly claims that Glew

published the book in 1852.

5 For a detailed account of the development and

ultimate abolition of the fair, see S ? Maiti?, The

Humours of Donnybrook: Dublin's Famous Fair

and its Suppression (Dublin 1995). 6 See S ? Maiti?, 'Changing Images of Donnybrook

Fair 1800-1850', in D Cronin, J Gilligan and K

Holton (eds), Irish Fairs and Markets (Dublin

2001) p. 165.

7 EL Glew, Life in Dublin or Donnybrook Fair in its

Palmiest Days (Newark 1870) p.35. The phrase 'to have a Donnybrook' is still in use in American

English. 8 Glew (as note 7) p.38. 9 Glew (as note 7) p.44. The figure in question is

just left of centre, stretching out his fist.

10 Glew (as note 7) p.26. 11 Watson was reputedly one of the first artists to

practise chromo-lithography in Dublin. See

Strickland (as note 2) vol 2, p.509 12 Strickland (as note 2) vol 2, p.509. 13 The Irish Confederation, established in 1847,

comprised members of the Young Irelanders who

had seceded from the Repeal Association. It was

associated closely with militant nationalism.

Glew's group portrait was exhibited at the Irish

Exhibition at Olympia in 1888. For a discussion of

that event, see B Rooney, 'The Irish Exhibition at

Olympia, 1888', Irish Architectural and

Decorative Studies, vol I (1998) pp. 100-19

14 Mitchel (1815-75), a solicitor and Young Irelander, succeeded Thomas Davis as chief political writer

for The Nation. He became frustrated with the con

servatism of the Young Irelanders and resigned from both The Nation and the Irish Confederation

and established the United Irishman newspaper. He was convicted of treason-felony in May 1848

and transported to Tasmania.

15 A series of these prints is in the National Gallery of Ireland. The figures in the picture also include

Thomas Francis Meagher and John Martin.

16 See ? Maiti? (as note 6) pp. 164-79.

17 Private collection. See A M Dalsimer and V

Kreilkamp, America's Eye. Irish Paintings from

the Collection of Brian P Burns, exh. cat. Boston

College Museum of Art (Boston 1996) p.73.

18 Maclise's drawing is in the Victoria and Albert

Museum. See N Weston, Irish Artists in Victorian

London (Dublin 2001) p.28. 19 For a lithograph by W Collins after du Noyer's

drawing of 1830, see George Victor du Noyer 1817-1869: Hidden Landscapes, exh. cat.

National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin 1995) p.28. 20 See Christie's, Irish Pictures (9 May 1996). 21 See Gorry Gallery (April 1989) no 19. Nicol pro

duced an almost identical version of this picture in

watercolour which is also in a private collection.

22 According to Glew, the main thoroughfare was

named Sackville Street in honour of Dublin's main

street which 'in point of width and beauty may be

said to have no rival.' Glew (as note 7) p.27. 23 Glew does retain the distinctive large red house

visible in the background to the right of Watson's

composition, but places it much further away. A

new Catholic church, opened to the public in

Donnybrook in 1866, was dedicated to the

Sacred Heart 'in reparation for all the sins com

mitted on the Fair Green over the centuries'. ?

Maiti? (as note 5) p.51. 24 Watson himself may have been influenced by

Maclise. The dramatic manner in which a fruit

seller is upended by a pig trying to escape its

tether in his picture (a detail copied verbatim by Glew) may have been inspired by Maclise's draw

ing, The Pattern Tent, which was illustrated in A

M Hall's Sketches of Irish Character (1842). See

J Turpin, 'Maclise as a Book Illustrator', Irish Arts

Review, vol 2, no 2 (Summer 1985) p.24. 25 Glew (as note 7) p.49. The Royal Hospital in

Ki I ma in ham, where this veteran would have

resided, served as a retreat for old soldiers from

1684 until 1929.

26 For example, the two drunken male figures who

disappear arm in arm behind the drinks tent on

the left hand side in Watson's painting, stagger towards the viewer in the same position in Glew's

composition. 27 ? Maiti? (as note 5) p. 19.

28 In Watson's picture, the proprietor of this estab

lishment is 'Thos. [illegible] from Bally....bridge, while in Glew's, it is Larry Byrne from Greystones.

29 F O'Ferrall, 'Daniel O'Connell, the 'Liberator',

1775-1847, in B P Kennedy and R Gillespie (eds), Ireland: Art into History (Dublin 1994) p. 102. In

his essay, O'Ferrall provides a useful overview of

the proliferation of images of O'Connell and the

manner in which they were used.

30 Glew (as note 7) p.41. 31 Glew (as note 7) p.41. 32 Glew (as note 7) p.42. Peg, or Peggy the Man,

married Dandyorum, a friend of Zozimus, at the

fair. The ceremony was conducted by 'Tack'em' a

maverick German clergyman from Rathmines, who for a fee married any couple that presented

themselves to him. ? Maiti? (as note 5) p.26. 33 This game involved betting on the toss of a coin

or coins.

34 In 1842, Zozimus was charged with being drunk

and falling over a crippled man. He claimed in

court that he had been assaulted by the person in

question. ? Maiti? (as note 5) p.25. 35 Turnover was of paramount importance and per

formances were notoriously short. The theatres

were also frequently overcrowded which led to

regular fracas. See ? Maiti? (as note 5) p.24. 36 Glew (as note 7) pp.29-30. 37 Glew (as note 7) p.27. 38 Glew claims that the proprietor of Paddy Kelly's

Tent owned a tavern in D'Olier Street, Dublin dur

ing the period in which the painting is set. The tent

was named after Paddy Kelly's Budget which,

having been established in 1832, was the earliest

of a number of satirical social magazines to report on the fair. See ? Maiti? (as note 5) p. 19.

39 This Thomas Reynolds should not be confused

with his namesake who was the principal informer against the United Irishmen in 1798.

40 Steele was so dismayed by the death of O'Connell

in 1848 that he attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Thames from Waterloo Bridge. He survived, but died a few days later and was

buried beside O'Connell in Glasnevin cemetery. 41 New York Tribune (18 Mar 1865). 42 The detail in which Glew copies elements of

Watson's picture suggests that he may have

acquired an engraving after it. No such engraving is known, but as Watson was a skilled engraver, it

seems likely that one existed.

43 Glew's Donnybrook Fair was sold at Christie's

London in 1981 (18 Nov; lot 107) and Watson's

A Scene at Donnybrook Fair in Sotheby's Irish

Sale of 1997 (22 May, lot 189). 44 Newark Daily Journal (6 Apr 1870). 45 Newark Evening Courier (7 Mar 1870). Glew

attempted to buy the painting back from Bassford

for the price the wealthy shop owner originally

paid, but Bassford declined.

46 Glew (as note 7) p.35. ? Maiti? corroborates

Glew's suggestion that the coal-porters were par

ticularly prone to violent behaviour.

47 Glew (as note 7) p.35. 48 Glew (as note 7) p.35. This was evidently a well

used phrase, as ? Maiti? quotes it in a different

context from the Irish Penny Journal of 22 Aug 1840. See ? Maiti? (as note 6) p. 175.

49 ? Maiti? maintains that the main antagonistic

rivalry of the 18th century was that between 'the

Liberty weavers on the south side and the

Ormond butchers on the north side of the Liffey'. This had sectarian, rather than strictly class, ori

gins. ? Maiti? (as note 5) p.32. 50 ? Maiti? (as note 5) p.21.

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