Sir Martin Archer Shee

Sir Martin Archer Shee 1769-1850, British portrait painter and writer, b. Dublin; pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He attained popularity in court and theatrical circles and executed many royal commissions. Among his portraits are those of Daniel O'Connell and William Archer Shee (Metropolitan Mus.) and the dramatist Thomas Morton (Tate Gall., London). He wrote Rhymes on Art (1805); a tragedy, Alasco (1824); and a novel, Old Court (1829). Shee was president of the Royal Academy from 1830 until his death.

Shee, Sir Martin Archer (b Dublin, 20 Dec. 1769; d Brighton, 19 Aug. 1850). Irish portrait painter and writer on art, active from 1788 in London. There he became second only to Lawrence as the leading society portraitist, and in 1830 he succeeded him as president of the Royal Academy, which he guided through a difficult period when it was under attack from Haydon and other disaffected artists. Examples of his work—which lies in style between the bravura of Lawrence and the precision of West—are in the National Portrait Gallery, London. He wrote Rhymes on Art (1805), in which he urged national patronage of artists, and Elements of Art (1809), a poem in six cantos.

Shee, Sir Martin Archer (1769–1850). Irish portrait painter and writer on art, active from 1788 in London. There he became second only to Lawrence as the leading society portraitist, and in 1830 he succeeded him as president of the Royal Academy, which he guided through a difficult period when it was under attack from Haydon and other disaffected artists. Examples of his work—which in style lies between the bravura of Lawrence and the precision of West—are in the National Portrait Gallery, London. He wrote Rhymes on Art (1805), in which he urged national patronage of artists, and Elements of Art (1809), a poem in six cantos.