#maclise

[ltwilliammowett]

Daniel MACLISE (1806 - 1870) “The Death of Nelson”

Wonderful panoramic interpretation of Victory’s deck at the moment when Nelson fell.

[lesleyannemcleod]

Charles Molloy Westmacott by Daniel Maclise

National Portrait Gallery

[hallsp]

S C Hall, and his wife, knew Thomas Moore very well, as well as Daniel Maclise.

[carminagf]

Charles Dickens. 1839. Daniel Maclise 

[carminagf]

May. Daniel Maclise

[carminagf]

Madeline After Prayer. 1868. Daniel Maclise

[vcrfl-blog]

Daniel Maclise: Charles Dickens, 1839.

[beware-herebedragons]

A False National Identity?

Pamela Berger in her essay The Historical, the Sacred, the Romantic: Medieval Texts into Irish Watercolors writes of three 19th century artists who combined folklore and mythology with contemporary political and religious sentiment in order to express a modern Irish national identity. The problem with this identity (unstated yet implied by Berger) - is that it is false.

The artists are Maclise, Healy and Burton, all three of them grappling in some way with the problem of converging the pagan past and the Christian present in order to create an Irish identity. Maclise’ The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife is ripe with symbolism, bringing Christianity front and center in a scene depicting the rape of Ireland by the British. While Maclise presents a strong anti-English viewpoint, his version of the story holds one (pretty major) problem - the British in the scene were invited into Ireland by Aoife’s father in order to defend the land from the Normans.

Why, after all these centuries, do the Irish hold such a hatred both in their hearts and their national art for the British, when they were in fact invited in to rule the land? It makes no sense to me that the Irish would end up hating the British rather than the Normans. It’s funny how, once Ireland returned to being self-sufficient, they so quickly forget that England rose up to help them and instead begin hating them for being on their land and wanting a piece of the pie that they helped defend from the Normans. Maclise has furthered the Irish myth of the oppressive British, a defender of Ireland who - at the time of their entry into the land - were not at all hated and were very cordially invited.