First Previous 2 OF 4 NextLast

Major Denis Mahon

2 of 4 portraits by Dickinson and Co

© National Portrait Gallery, London

 Like voting
is closed

Thanks for Liking

Please Like other favourites!
If they inspire you please support our work.

Buy a print Buy a greetings card Make a donation Close

Major Denis Mahon

by Dickinson and Co, after Thomas Charles Wageman
lithograph, before 1847
15 3/8 in. x 12 5/8 in. (389 mm x 320 mm) paper size
Given by Bonnie and Robert Meech, 2010
Reference Collection
NPG D42554

Sitterback to top

  • Denis Mahon (1787-1847), Major. Sitter associated with 2 portraits.

Artistsback to top

  • Dickinson and Co. Artist or producer associated with 4 portraits.
  • Thomas Charles Wageman (1787-1863), Painter, printmaker and draughtsman. Artist or producer associated with 263 portraits, Sitter associated with 2 portraits.

Events of 1847back to top

Current affairs

The 10 Hours Factory Act passed, regulating working hours for women and children under the age of eighteen to a maximum of ten hours a day.
The Communist League is founded in London, and drew up a set of rules and aims, including overthrowing the bourgeoisie and empowering the Proleteriat, and ending class division, forming the basis of Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto (1848).}
Death and emigration resulting from starvation, plague and disease during worst year of the Great Famine in Ireland, known as Black 47.

Art and science

A good year for novels: Emily Bronte's passionate, rebellious and gothic Wuthering Heightsis published, followed shortly by her sister Charlotte's 'Jane Eyre, a story of a governess's struggle for liberty from social and gender constrictions. Drawing on a similar vein of revolution and rebellious women, William Thackeray's satirical novel Vanity Fair is serialised.

International


The Don Pacifico affair sparks an international incident, when the Jewish trader's business was burned in an anti-semitic attack in Athens. When the Greek government refused to compensate him, Gibraltar-born Pacifico appealed to the British government. Foreign Minister Palmerston sent a squadron into the Aegean in 1850 to seize goods of the equivalent value, leading to strained relations with Turkey and Russia, and heated debates in Parliament.

Comments back to top

We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.

If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.

Roger Elkin

30 June 2022, 10:12

Writing beneath portrait:
Working on letter formation on the lithograph the missing word marked (?) might be “attached” - meaning romantically connected…

Roger Elkin

30 June 2022, 08:11

The writing beneath the portrait
“God bless both yourself
&Grace
- from your affectionate
and ( ?)Husband
Denis Mahon”

Major Denis Mahon’s daughter, Grace, was married to Henry Sandford Pakenham in 1847.

Roger Elkin

10 May 2021, 10:55

Major Denis Mahon (1787-1847), of Strokestown Park,
Co. Roscommon
Dickinson and Co, from a lithograph by Thomas Charles Wageman

“A man of high family … connected by intermarriages with the Duke of Wellington.” The Times, November 6, 1847


Major Denis Mahon lived at Strokestown Park House, Strokestown, County Roscommon. He belonged to the Mahon family who in 1801 were elevated to the Earls of Hartland for their support of the Act of Union. When he inherited the estate in 1845, it was badly in debt.
In 1847 during the Irish Potato Famine, Major Denis Mahon paid £4,000 for the emigration to Canada of 1,000 of his tenants, nearly a quarter of whom died en route, while many of the survivors were sick on arrival. Subsequently, large numbers of his tenants refused to go to America: Mahon responded by evicting 600 families involving about 3000 persons. Major Mahon was shot to death on the evening of 2 November 1847 as he was returning home from a meeting of the Board of Guardians in Roscommon town. He was the first English aristocrat to be murdered during the Famine; seven others met a similar end.