Sir Martin Archer Shee

1 portrait matching these criteria:

- subject matching 'Self-portraits'

Sir Martin Archer Shee, by Sir Martin Archer Shee, 1794 -NPG 1093 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Early Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Sir Martin Archer Shee

by Sir Martin Archer Shee
1794
30 in. x 24 3/4 in. (762 mm x 629 mm)
NPG 1093

Inscriptionback to top

According to a note in the NPG files, inscribed on the back (inscription no longer visible), presumably on the stretcher or canvas (relined): Sir Martin Archer Shee P.R.A. Ipse Pinxit 1794. Age 25

This portraitback to top

Strickland erroneously lists the NPG portrait, and that previously owned by Major Archer Shee, as two separate pictures. Other self-portraits are listed below:
1 Painting. Exhibited RA, 1798 (68).
2 Painting, with E. Ellis. Exhibited RA, 1816 (77). Probably the painting sold Sotheby's, 15 January 1958 (lot 123), where the figure with Shee is called Andrew Vesian.
3 Painting (at a young age). Dublin Exhibition, 1872, 'Portraits' (404), lent by Lord James Butler.
4 Engraving by J. Thomson, after a drawing(?) by Shee, published Sherwood and Co, 1824 (example in NPG), for the European Magazine. Reproduced W. Sandby, History of the Royal Academy of Arts (1862), II, 73.

Referenceback to top

Strickland 1913
W. G. Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913), II, 335.

Physical descriptionback to top

Healthy complexion, brown eyes, grey wig. Dressed in a white shirt, white stock, dark green waistcoat and coat. Deep red curtain covering most of background, except for a glimpse of green and orange sky bottom right.

Provenanceback to top

The sitter; by descent to his son, Major Martin Archer Shee; purchased at Christie's, 8 May 1897 (lot 59).

Exhibitionsback to top

RA, 1795 (135); VE, 1892 (190).

Reproductionsback to top

W. G. Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913), II, plate LVI, facing 346.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for Sir Martin Archer Shee