Paul Caffrey charts the extraordinary life and travels of Irish man John Ramage, 18th-century miniaturist, goldsmith, pastellist, socialite and bigamist, whose portrait of George Washington was sold last year in New York for $1.1 million
The first portrait painted of an American president was sold recently at Christie’s in New York for $1.1 million in an auction of American decorative arts. This portrait of George Washington (Fig 1) was the work of John Ramage (c.1748–1802), an Irish-born and trained miniature painter.¹ But who was Ramage and how did this obscure Irishman come to paint the earliest presidential portrait?
The National Library of Ireland recently acquired an album of thirty-six watercolours and prints made by James Cavanah Murphy in Portugal between 1789 and 1790. Michael McCarthy recalls the career and travels of this unusual draughtsman
The Smurfit Art Collection spans three continents and contains some of the best 20th-century Irish art. Ciaran MacGonical reviews a new catalogue of the collection