Aran Fisherman’s Drowned Child

SIR FREDERIC BURTON

Mid-19th century watercolour artist, Frederic Burton was born in Corofin, Co. Clare where his family had earlier settled as landowners. Although he initially focused on portraiture and subject painting, he is best known for The Meeting on the Turret Stairs, a painting which was voted Ireland's favourite painting by the public in an RTE television documentary in 2012.

The popular painting was inspired by a Danish ballad which tells the violent story of ill-fated lovers Hellelil and Hildebrand. Burton's painting on the contrary shows an imagined tender clandestine meeting of the couple on a spiral turret stairs. Another of Burton's well-known paintings is 'Aran Fisherman's Drowned Child' which sensivtively reflects the customs, folklore and traditions of pre-famine Connaught.
Read more ▶


GALLERY OF ARTEFACTS









Commission a Family History Report Order Now