Theodore Martin

“ In luminous strength and harmony of colour, in truth to nature, in depth and sincerity of feeling, he recalled Mabuse, Van Eyck, and other great early masters, but he added to these qualities an accuracy of line, a refinement and suggestiveness of expression, with a pervading sense of beauty, which marked the hand and heart of an original as well as a highly accomplished artist. These qualities were quickly recognised, his drawings were eagerly sought for, and now, whenever they come into the market, fetch very high prices. ”

“ Every year showed an advance in the mastery of this branch of art. It reached its highest point in two large drawings of Helen Faucit—onestanding as Antigone, the other seated in private dress. These were exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1839, and placed him among the leading water-colour painters of the day. For the next two years he remained in Dublin, fully occupied in painting portraits, true as likenesses, but with the added charm only to be given by the artist gifted with the power of showing the soul behind the face. ”

“ During the twenty years he acted as director, no fewer than some 450 foreign, and some hundred English, pictures were added to the collection, chiefly by purchase. The foreign pictures were classified under his direction according to the different schools, making comparatively easy the study of the progressive development of the painter’s art in Europe from its infancy onwards. All his thoughts and all his time were devoted to the care and development of the gallery. It was a duty to which he sacrificed without a murmur his personal ambition as an artist. ”