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SIR MARTIN ARCHER SHEE (1770-1850)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 817 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR See also:MARTIN See also:ARCHER See also:SHEE (1770-1850)  , See also:English portrait-painter and See also:president of the Royal See also:Academy, was See also:born in See also:Dublin on the 23rd of Decembei 1770 . He was sprung from an old Irish See also:family, and his See also:father, a See also:merchant, regarded the profession of a painter as no See also:fit occupation for a descendant of the Shees . See also:Young See also:Shee became, nevertheless, a student of See also:art in the Dublin Society, and came See also:early to See also:London, where he was, in1788, introduced by See also:Burke to See also:Reynolds, by whose See also:advice he studied in the See also:schools of the Royal Academy . In' 1789 he exhibited his first two pictures, the See also:Head of an Old See also:Man and Portrait of a See also:Gentleman . During the next ten years he steadily increased in practice . He was chosen an See also:associate of the Royal Academy in 1798, shortly after See also:Flaxman, and in 'Soo he was made a Royal Academician . In the former See also:year he had married, removed to See also:Romney's See also:house in See also:Cavendish Square, and set up as his successor . Shee continued to paint with See also:great readiness of See also:hand and fertility of invention, although his portraits were eclipsed by more than one of his contemporaries, and especially by See also:Lawrence, See also:Hoppner, See also:Phillips, See also:Jackson and See also:Raeburn . The earlier portraits of the artist are carefully finished, easy in See also:action, with See also:good See also:drawing and excellent discrimination of See also:character . They show an undue tendency to redness in the flesh See also:painting—a defect which is still more apparent in his later See also:works, in which the handling is less " square," crisp and forcible . In addition to his portraits he executed various subjects and See also:historical works, such as Lavinia, See also:Belisarius, his diploma picture Prospero and See also:Miranda, and the Daughter of See also:Jephthah . In 1805 he published a-poem consisting of Rhymes on Art, and it was succeeded by a second See also:part in 1809 .

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Byron spoke well of it in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, and invoked a See also:place for " Shee and See also:genius " in the See also:temple of fame . Shee published another small See also:volume of verses in 1814, entitled The See also:Commemoration of See also:Sir See also:Joshua Reynolds, and other Poems, but this effort did not greatly increase his fame .. He now produced a tragedy called Alasco, of which the See also:scene was laid in See also:Poland . The See also:play was accepted at Covent See also:Garden, but See also:Colman, the licenser, refused it his See also:sanction, on the plea of its containing certain treasonable allusions, and Shee, in great wrath, resolved to make his See also:appeal to the public . This violent See also:threat he carried out in 1824, but Alasco is still on the See also:list of unacted dramas . On the See also:death of Lawrence in 1830, Shee was chosen president of the Royal Academy, and shortly afterwards he received the See also:honour of See also:knighthood . In the dispute regarding the use of rooms to be provided by See also:government, and in his examination before the See also:parliamentary See also:committee of 1836, he ably defended the rights of the Academy . He continued to paint till 1845, and died on the 13th of See also:August 1850 .

End of Article: SIR MARTIN ARCHER SHEE (1770-1850)
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