Life
1789-1866 [var. 1 Jan 1790, Hoagland]; born Dublin, Scottish father, painter
and engraver; ed. Samuel Whyte’s school, and intended for medicine,
but entered RDS Drawing School, 1805; won RDS medal for modelling; walking
tours in Dublin, Wicklow, collecting music and architectural scenes, 1808;
visited Wales, 1910, and England, 1813; m. Eliza Mills, 1819; exhibited RHA, 1826-58; MRHA,
1828, in spite of deficit of oil paintings; elected RIA, 1928; advisor
council of RIA, 1830; friend of Mulvany and but did not paint in oil;
worked for Thomas Larcom on Ordnance Survey, Topographical Section, from
1830, and charged with the historical section in 1835; house at Great
Charles St. a centre of literary life; ed., with Otway, Dublin Penny
Journal (first issue, 30 June 1832), and later ed. Irish Penny
Journal (1842); illustrated numerous guide-books on Ireland; his Essays
on Antiquities of Tara (1839) and the more celebrated “Round
Towers of Ireland”, in which he disproved Phoenician ‘fire-tower’
theories of their origin (later published in Ecclesiastical
Architecture of Ireland, 1845) won RDS gold medals; ill. Cromwell's Tours of Ireland and Brewer's Beauties of Ireland; civil pension
list (£300 p.a.), 1849; designed new Irish type-faces; issued The Petrie
Collection of Ancient Music of Ireland (1855), in which he noted ‘this
awful, unwonted silence which during the Famine and subsequent years almost
everywhere prevailed’; instrumental in establishing permanent premises
of the RHA in Gandon’s building in Lwr. Abbey St., Dublin; President
of RHA, 1857; also collected Irish music as The Ancient Music of Ireland
(1855) [var. 1st edn. 1853 DIH]; a supplementary collection, Music
in Ireland, appeared in 1882; there is a portrait of Petrie by Sleator
in the RIA; bur. Mount Jerome, in a grave covered by flat Celtic memorial
slab. CAB DNB DIB DIW DIH BREF DIL RAF FDA
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Works
On the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill (1839); The
Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland
(Dublin: Hodges & Smith, 1845) [includes his ‘Round Towers’
essay of 1833]; Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language,
7 pts. [RSAI] (1870-77) [var. 1872-78; presum. ed. Margaret Stokes, 1872
&c.], 57 pls.; The Petrie Collection of Ancient Music of Ireland,
2 vols. (Dublin UP, 1855-82); Charles Villiers Standford, ed., The
Complete Collection of Irsh Music, as noted by George Petrie, 3 pts.
in 1, (1902-05), xxix+397pp.; David Cooper, ed., The Petrie Collection
of the Ancient Music of Ireland (Cork UP 2002), 280pp. [200 airs;
orig. 1855 & 1882].
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Criticism
Samuel Ferguson, ‘George Petrie’ [Gallery of Illustrious Irishmen], Dublin University Magazine (Dec. 1839); Ferguson, ‘Petrie’s Round Towers’, Dublin University Magazine (April 1845).
William Stokes, Life and Labours in Art and Archaeology of George Petrie (London: Longmans 1868).
A. P. Graves, ‘George Petrie as an Artist and Man of Letters’, in Irish Literary & Musical Studies (1913), p.200ff.
Desmond F. Moore, ‘The Royal Hibernian Academy’, in Dublin Historical Record, March/May 1966, pp.28-37.
Myles Dillon, ‘George Petrie 1789-1866’, Studies (Autumn 1967), 266-76.
Grace J. Calder, George Petrie and the Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin: Dolmen 1968) [ltd. edn. 1500], 59pp.
J. Sheehy, The Rediscovery of Ireland’s Past; the Celtic Revival 1830-1930 (Thames and Hudson, 1980), pp.22-45, 58-61.
J. Hutchinson, The dynamics of Cultural nationalism, The Gaelic Revival and the Creation of the Irish Nation State (London: Allen & Unwin 1987), pp.80-90.
Peter Murray [RHA Director], ‘Trouble at the Mill: George Petrie and the Royal Hibernian Academy’, in “Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts Special Issue”, Martello Arts Review, ed. Maureen Charlton, (1991), pp.14-22.
Peter Murray, George Petrie (1790-1866): The Re-Discovery of Ireland's Past [Crawford Municipal Art Gallery] (Dublin: Gandon 2004), 180pp.
Peter Murray, George Petrie (1790-1866): The Re-Discovery of Ireland’s Past (Crawford Municipal Art Gallery 2004), 180pp., 24 col. ills. [incls. essays by Joep Leerssen and Tom Dunne]
Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael (1986).
Fintan Cullen, ed., Sources in Irish Art: A Reader (Cork UP 2000) [writings by George Petrie, Edmund Burke, Samuel Madden, Lady Morgan, W. B. Yeats, Elizabeth Thompson, Mainie Jellet, et al.]
Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences (1882).
Hubert Butler, ‘Lament for Archaeology’, in Roy Foster, ed., The Sub-Prefect Should Have Held His Tongue (London: Allen Lane/Penguin Press; Dublin: Lilliput 1990),p.171.
A. P. Graves, ‘George Petrie as an Artist and Man of Letters’, in Irish Literary & Musical Studies (1913), p.200ff. .
Shane Leslie, The Irish Tangle for English Readers (1946), p.33.
Desmond F. Moore, ‘The Royal Hibernian Academy’, in Dublin Historical Record, March/May 1966, pp.28-37.
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, Vol. 1 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), remarks that George Petrie carried on Bunting’s work under the same title (p.165).
Peter Murray [RHA Director], ‘Trouble at the Mill: George Petrie and the Royal Hibernian Academy’, in ‘Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts Special Issue’, Martello Arts Review, ed. Maureen Charlton, (1991), pp.14-22.
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Notes
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: CUA
1904), for extracts from The Round Towers; also ‘On Irish
Music’, and ‘Pearl of the White Breast’ from The Irish
[sic]. SEE also Irish Book Lover 2, 6.
Encyclopaedia of Ireland (Dublin: Figgis 1968), under ‘The Great Collectors’, p.390, George Petrie’s Ancient Music of Ireland (1855) counting 147 airs, with notes and commentary, is the most interesting and authoritative work in this field. His vast collection of material remained in manuscript until edited by Stanford in 1903, but without the notes which only Petrie could have written.
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, Vol. 2 (1980), lists titles incl. On the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill (1839), Christian Inscriptions (1872-78), and The Petrie Collection of Ancient Irish Music (1855-82), of which C. V. Stanford edited a 3rd Vol. between 1902-1905.
Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography [rev. edn.] (Gill & Macmillan 1988), gives var. bio-dates 1790-1866; lists subjects of topographical sketches incl. Cong, Killarney, Clonmacnoise, Aran.
J. S. Crone, A Concise Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin: Talbot 1928), gives bio-dates 1789-1866; lists Life by W. Stokes; ed. Dublin Penny Journal 1832-4; Irish Penny Journal, 1842; Tara and Round Towers; Ancient Music of Ireland; Ordnance survey 1833-46 [sic]. See also FDA1 notes at 962, 1267, 1268.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2, selects The Petrie Collection of The Ancient Music of Ireland [77-79, 82-83, 86, 88, 160-61], ed. Samuel Whyte’s School and RDS [Art Schools]; collected music and made ecclesiastical sketches throughout Dublin and Wicklow in 1808; employed O’Donovan, O’Curry, and Mangan in Ordnance Survey [Commission], discontinued in 1840; continued his antiquarian work in Irish Arch. Society, 1840, and Ossianic Society, 1853; member of RHA, 1828; reorganised the RHA [see NOTE, infra]; celebrated water-colours and sketches incl. ‘The Last Round of the Pilgrims at Clonmacnoise’, and ‘Gougane Barra’; co-edited Dublin Penny Journal, 1832-33; ed. Irish Penny Journal, 1842; essays on ‘Round Towers’ (1833) and On the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill (1839) awarded RDS gold medals; collections of Irish music. d. Dublin. WORKS & CRIT [as above]. NOTE FDA2 asserts that he reorganised the RHA, whereas Desmond Moore, supra, shows that he was a leader of the conservative opposition to such reforms; and DIB lists Michel Angelo Hayes, his opponent (1820-1877); ‘he reorganised the affairs of the academy, especially its finances, but antagonised older members. After a bitter quarrel he was expelled, but returned as a member in 1860 under a new charter; elected secretary again in 1861; retired 1870.] And see also FDA2, ‘The importance of the work of Eugene O’Curry, John O’Donovan, Whitley Stokes, Standish Hayes O’Grady, can scarcely be overstated. With these scholars stands George Petrie’ (Thomas MacDonagh, 1916), 990. FDA2 gives details of the Ordnance Commission, active from 1830, first report 1839, government commission favourable report on which was rejected by the authorities. [FDA1 1265]; George Petrie was attached to the Commission from 1833 to 1839. [1267]. NOTE that Petrie has a much higher profile in FDA than Eugene O’Curry, John O’Daly, or John O’Donovan.
Hyland Books (Cat. 224) lists Margaret Stokes, rd., Christian Inscription in the Irish Language, 2 vols., (Dublin U.P., 1872; An Essay on Military Architecture in Ireland Previous to the English Invasion (Dublin: Proc. RIA 1972 [‘Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy’, 72C, 1972; pp.153-269]) [De Burca Catl. 18]. The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, Anterior to the Anglo-Norman Invasion; [with] an Essay on the Round Towers of Ireland [2nd Edn.] (Dublin: [Hodges & Smith] 1845), xxi+525pp., ill.; Charles Villiers Standford, ed., The Complete Collection of Irsh Music, as noted by George Petrie, 3 pts. in 1, (1902-05), xxix+397pp.; Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language, 7 pts. [RSAI] (1870-77); G. N. Wright, A Guide to County Wicklow (1827), map and 5 Petrie engravings.
De Burca Books (Cat. No. 44; 1997), lists J. N. Brewer, Esq., The Beauties of Ireland: Being Original Delineations, Topographical, Historical, and Biographical of each county [with] engravings by J. and H. S. Storer after original drawings, chiefly by Mr. Petrie of Dublin, 2 vols. (London: Sherwood, 1825-6), xcviii, 493pp.; cii, 501pp. [£200]
Ulster Univ. Library (Morris Collection) holds Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language, 2 vols. (R. Hist. Arch. Irel., Hodges and Smith 1845); The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland anterior to the Anglo-Norman Invasion, comprising an essay on the origin and uses of the Round towers in Ireland which obtained the Gold medal and Prize of the RIA (Hodges and Smith 1845) 519p.; On the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill (1839) 208p.; The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, arranged for piano-forte (1978). Also, Whitley Stokes, The Life and Labours in Art and Archaeology of George Petrie, 2 vols. (Longmans 1868).
Belfast Public Library holds An Account of an ancient Irish Reliquary called the Domnach-Argid (1838); Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language (1872); The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland (1845); Letter to Sir William R. Hamilton in reply to certain charges against the author by Sir William Be[n]tham (1840). Also biogs. by C. L. Graves (1866), and W. Stokes [quoted in CAB3, under Stokes] (1868).
J. M. Synge read Petrie’s Ecclesiastical Architecture of
Ireland and Stokes’s Life and Labours in Archaeology of George
Petrie, which includes some of Petrie’s notes on the antiquities
and the people of the Aran Islands [see David Greene and Edward Stephens, J M Synge, 1959, p.28].
Petrie Crown: The ‘Petrie Crown’ is an Iron Age metal object of unknown provenance, showing La Tène scrollwork, some with suggestions of bird-headed endings and settings for enamel; decorated plate, with concave roundels and a hollow horn; decorated in relief, and regularly cut to create an openwork effect. Period, 1st century AD; purpose unknown; formerly in the collection of George Petrie, now National Museum [BREF 192]
Barbara Hayley gives notice of a fine-arts book review of Petrie’s Ten Views of Picturesque Scenery in the North and North-west of Ireland appeared in the National Magazine, Aug. 1830, [Hayley,] in ‘Irish Periodicals’, in Anglo-Irish Studies, ii, (1976) [pp.83-108], p.91. This was printed under the editorship of Charles Lover [...] who handed over to Philip Dixon Hardy before its expiration in 1831. For ironic comments on ‘true antiquarian friendship’, see also under John O’Donovan.
George A. Little (Dublin Before the Vikings, 1957) makes reference to Dixon-Hardy, the capable editor of Petrie’s Dublin Penny Journal and author of the guide, A Picture of Dublin [85], further remarking that Petrie acknowledges St Bride’s [Dublin church mentioned in Annals of Four Masters] was built in the pre-Scandinavian era of Dublin’s history [in Eccles. Arch. Irel.; here c.124].
Ordnance Survey: ‘Between the years of 1824 and 1846, the time it took to produce the 1,900 six-inch maps which were the central object of the survey, semi-literate peasants were quizzed about tals and place names they had known, or half-known, all their lives. Suddenly a half-remembered truth was, often infuriatingly, important, particularly if there was more than one version.’ (Eileen Battersby, review of Gillian Doherty, The Irish Ordnance Survey: History, Culture and Memory, Dublin: Four Courts, in The Irish Times, 6 Nov. 2004.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)