![]() In the 1850s and ’60s, writers seeking to establish the authenticity of several portraits purporting to represent her began the task of separating the obviously exaggerated elements of her story from verifiable facts. Nineteenth-century biographers like Louisa Stuart Costello, who included a garbled account of Countess Katherine in her Memoirs of eminent Englishwomen (1844), kept her in the public eye. ‘What a frisky old girl!’, exclaimed Thomas Moore. Thus it was claimed that she lived until at least the age of 140 (or possibly 162!), remaining extraordinarily healthy in her later years: she had allegedly grown at least one new set of teeth, she regularly walked to Youghal, and she met her death when she fell out of a cherry or nut tree that she had climbed to pick the fruit, some sources adding the detail that the tree had been planted by Sir Walter Raleigh. When Thomas died in 1534, Katherine retired to the curious medieval castle at Inchiquin in east Cork, near Youghal, where she lived until her death in 1604 or 1614, though on at least one occasion she supposedly departed to petition Elizabeth I or James I, her reduced means forcing her to walk from Bristol to London, pulling her aged daughter in a cart. Her husband was Thomas ‘the bald’ Fitzgerald, who in 1529, when in his seventies, became 11th earl of Desmond, and with whom she had a daughter. Waterford, she had, so legend went, married in Edward IV’s reign, and had even danced at court with the future Richard III. Assumed to have been born in the 1460s, in Dromana, Co. In the nineteenth century, Katherine Fitzgerald, the ‘Old’ Countess of Desmond, was one of the most familiar characters from early modern Ireland. Laus Deo.’ (National Portrait Gallery, London) Her principal residence is at Inchiquin, in Munster, whither she undauntedlye proposeth (her Purpose accomplished) incontinentlie to return. She was married in ye Reigne of King Edward IV and in ye course of her long Pilgrimage, renewed her Teeth Twice. ![]() Thither She came from Bristol, to seek Relief, ye House of Desmond having been ruined by Attainder. As she appeared at ye Court of our Sovereign Lord, King James, in thys present AD. In a sense, the year 1825 marks the true beginning of his life as a viable portrait artist.‘Catherine, Countesse of Desmonde. The sketch of Sir Walter was lithographed and sold well, thus helping to give Maclise a local reputation. In 1825 Maclise's artistic ambitions received a huge boost when he successfully sketched Sir Walter Scott on his visit to Bolster's bookshop in Cork. Eventually Maclise got a start in life, as a member of the staff of Mr Newenham's Bank. Through Sainthill, Maclise became interested in medals, coins, and aspects of heraldry, and went on to illustrate coin catalogues for Sainthill with great detail. He was befriended by the Cork merchant, Richard Sainthill. Through Newenham he met an entire circle of educated, art-loving Cork people. When he was fourteen years old a lady named Miss Sprat drew the attention of the banker and art connoisseur, George Newenham, to his activities. All the time he was sketching and browsing in the new print shops of the prosperous southern port city of Cork. He made friends easily and spent his time swimming, sailing, singing in the choir of the Presbyterian Church in Prince's Street, fencing, and playing the guitar and flute. It was claimed that he could swim from Blackrock Castle to Little Island and back without resting, a major feat in a tidal river and that he could row for nine miles without a break. As well as drawing, the young Maclise loved outdoor, physical activities. He was not particularly interested in his school-work, and spent most of his time sketching in his books and the copy-books of his friends. Maclise was educated locally in Cork and may have attended the famous school of Dr Maginn. ![]() His sister Anna married the lawyer, Percival Banks, while his sister Isabella, devoted to her brother, moved to London to manage his household. While his family were hard-working, ambitious, but poor, Maclise and his brothers were to do remarkably well in life ? two of his brothers became doctors, William a military doctor who served in the Crimean War, and Joseph who became a widely published expert in anatomy. His father was an ex-soldier and shoemaker in Nile Street (now Sheares Street and Mardyke area). ![]() Daniel Maclise was born in Cork in 1806 into a frugal Scottish Presbyterian family.
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