Henry Pelham, Miniature Painter
(b. 1749, d. 1806)
Miniature Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Was son of Peter Pelham, the mezzotint engraver, by his second wife, Mary Singleton, widow of Richard Copley and mother of John Singleton Copley, R.A. Born in America on 14th February, 1749, he was a civil engineer, and probably studied painting under Copley. He came to England and exhibited miniatures at the Royal Academy in 1777 and 1778, and also in the former year a picture, "The Finding of Moses," which was finely engraved by William Ward in 1787. About 1778 or 1779 he went to Ireland, where he had the appointment of agent for the Kerry estates of Lord Lansdowne. In 1780 he exhibited some miniatures at the Society of Artists in Dublin. In Grose's "Antiquities of Ireland" are three plates after drawings by him, viz., views of "Quinn Abbey," "Clare Abbey" and "Ennis Abbey." He published a portrait of the old Countess of Desmond, done in aquatint by Nathaniel Grogan (q.v.), of Cork. A map of the county of Clare surveyed and drawn by him by order of the Grand Jury of the county in 1779, was published in twelve large sheets, each 24 by 18 in. Pelham was drowned by the upsetting of a boat on the Kenmare river in 1806.
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