Port-e-Chee
Date made: 1795
Description: A wide view over the Port y Shee Claddagh (Port-e-Chee) from the old Quarterbridge, showing accurately Old Kirk Braddan (Kirby was not built until twenty years later), the Duke's house, and the distant hills. The largest of the series, this careful drawing owes its greater size to its subject - the Duke's Manx seat prior to the erection of Castle Mona.
This is one of a series of 18th century watercolour paintings depicting the Isle of Man executed by Britain's leading watercolour artist John 'Warwick' Smith. In the 1790s John ‘Warwick’ Smith was commissioned by the 4th Duke of Atholl, John Murray (1755-1830), then Governor-in-Chief of the Isle of Man, to complete a series of watercolour drawings of the Isle of Man. Twenty-six were completed in total, some of the earliest watercolour paintings depicting the Island. When the Duke died in 1830 the Atholls’ connection to the Isle of Man was severed, and the paintings were taken to Blair Castle, the ancestral home of the Atholl family. In the 1950s the entire set was rediscovered and purchased for the Manx Museum and returned to the Isle of Man.
Materials: watercolour on paper
Object name: Painting
Collection: Art Collection
ID number: 1954-7217
Subject tags : #Johnwarwicksmith