He was born in Dublin in 1813. His mother was housekeeper to George
Meade of 6 Malpas Street. Displaying a bent for art
Meade put him into the Dublin Society’s School in 1829 and there he made good
progress, carrying off prizes in 1830 and 1831. In the latter year he sent two
classical subjects to the Royal Hibernian Academy, and began to practice as a
painter, residing for some years in Malpas Street. He
at first confined himself to classical subjects, influenced by the work of his
patron Meade and his “Coriolanus” was bought by the Royal Irish Art Union in
1841 for fifty pounds; but about 1842 he began to paint scenes of Irish country
life such as “The Irish Peasant’s Grave” 1843; “The Low-backed Car” 1853;
“Larry O’Toole praying for a son and heir” 1860 a subject taken from one of
Carleton’s stories. His “Irish Peasant’s Grave” was purchased by the Royal
Irish Art Union for seventy pounds and was won as a prize by W.P. Hyndman of
Aston’s Quay. It afterwards belonged to J. Hamilton Read of Killarney Hill, Wicklow and was lithographed and published by E.J. Harty of 9 Dame Street. Tracey was a frequent exhibitor in
the Royal Irish Academy. In 1860 he went to reside in Heytesbury
Street, and he gradually abandoned painting and confined himself to picture
cleaning and restoring. His patron G. Meade, who died in 1835, bequeathed three
hundred pounds to him as well as one hundred to his sister. He died at his
residence in Heytesbury Street, Dublin, in November
1873, in his 60th year. His two sons, John (died 11th
December 1911) and Edward (still living [in 1913]), successfully continued
their father’s business as picture cleaners at 13 Heytesbury
Street.” He also had a painting in the first exhibition of the Society of Irish
Artists, held in the Royal Irish Institution, College Street in April 1843.
Strickland WG (1969) A
dictionary of Irish Artists. Volume II. Irish University Press, Shannon.
p.451-2.) Originally published in 1913.
3 February
1860 IT
Art Union of Ireland...subscribers...Mr. John Tracey, jun;...
Donohue and
Tracy - 2nd July 1870, at St Kevins Harrington street, David youngest son of Patrick Donohoe, builder of this city, to Ellen, eldest daughter of
John Tracy, of 85 Heytesbury street
1901 Census
John
Tracey, 62, M, 13 Heytesbury Street, Wood Quay,
Dublin, Picture Cleaner, Roman Catholic, Head of Family, Not Married, Dublin
Edward
Tracey, 58, M, Heytesbury Street, Wood Quay, Dublin,
Picture Cleaner, Roman Catholic, Brother, Not Married, Dublin
Georgina
Tracey, 47, F, Heytesbury Street, Wood Quay, Dublin,
No business, Roman Catholic, Sister, Not Married, Dublin
John,
Tracey, 13 Heytesbury St., 72, M, Wood Quay Dublin
(brother, single, picture restorer)
Edward,
Tracey, Heytesbury St., 68, M, Wood Quay Dublin
(brother, single, picture restorer)
Georgina,
Tracey, Heytesbury St., 58, F, Wood Quay Dublin
(sister, single)
1919 London wills
Edward Tracey of 13 Heytesbury-street Dublin died 12 June 1919. Probate Dublin
to Edward Emanuel Lennon F.R.C.P.I. Effects £1840 in
England. Sealed London 14 August.
1930 London
Wills
Georgina Tracey of 568 North Circular road Dublin
spinster died 12 March 1930 Probate London 30 April to Edward Emanuel Lennon
F.R.C.P.S.I. Effects £1044.
Newspaper and Other
References
1839 The Art journal
John Tracy, also a young
artist. No. 97, 'Brutus declaring his determination to revenge Lucretia,' is very creditable to his talents. He appears
imbued with the spirit of the "olden school of France." Le Brun seems his model. The back ground and draperies are
beautifully got in, and shew talent far beyond what
we could expect from a hand hitherto unknown.
June 19, 1840 (FJ) Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA)
97. Brutus declaring his
determination to revenge Lucretia (Tracy). There are
few good attempts at historical subjects in the exhibition, but among the the present picture takes a principal place. The artist's
conception of the tragic scene, and of the feelings of the several parties
concerned in it, appears to have been very correct, and he has succeeded in
giving expression to his ideas on the canvass. The variety and beauty of the
grouping and drapery are peculiarly striking, and the moer
mechanical, though equally difficult, portion of the work is alike worthy of
commendation.
May 12, 1841 (FJ) RHA annual Exhibition
No. 20 Coriolanus by Tracy,
an arduous effort, our observations on which we must postpone to our next
notice.
No. 20
"The family of Coriolanus entreating for the preservation of Rome",
by Mr. Tracy, a young and certainly a promising artist. The subject is a bold and
arduous one and the very attempt would have been a merit in the artist, had he
not even suceeded so
eminently as he has done. The picture is full of figures, very much in Poussin's style of composition, and the colouring not
unlike that of Paul Veronnese, although it is not
laid on with sufficient finish for the subject. The artist has thus studied in
no bad school. There is a good deal of spirit in many of the figures, the
expression being very good in the principal ones, and unity is well preserved
in the whole composition. There is evident anacronism
in the architure of the back ground, but too many
precedents of high authority could be pleaded in its behalf. On the whole, it
is a picture which indicates considerable genius in the author.
September 3, 1841 (FJ) Fine Arts - Royal Irish Art Union
...Coriolanus, Tracy,
£50...
May 23, 1842 (FJ) Fine Arts - Royal Irish Art Union
229. The Angel's Whisper, by
J. Tracey, Dublin, £30 - the artist's price.
June 7, 1842 (FJ) Royal Irish Art Union
71. Feeding the Calf, by J.
Tracey, Dublin, £10.
June 14, 1842 (FJ) Exhibition of the RHA
No. 229, "The angel's
Whisper", by Tracy, a very superior picture in many repects.
June 5, 1843 (FJ) Fine arts - Royal Irish Art Union
'The Peasant's Grave' by J.
Tracey, £70, being the artist's price.
August 30, 1843 (FJ) Royal Irish Art Union - Distribution
of Prizes
The Irish Peasant's Grave, J.
Tracy, £70
2 September 1843 (N) Royal Irish Art-Union
Drawing of prizes...[fourth] 'The Irish Peasant's Grave' by J. Tracy, 70l.
W.P. Hyndman, 9 Aston's-quay
June 12, 1844 (FJ) RHA
In
"Which is the purtiest?" Tracy has very successfully given an
heathen story in an Irish dress. A lair of country little mountain woman lasses
have selected as umpire between them a rustic Paris, and are submitting their
plump little feet to his inspection, that he may decide "which is the purtiest." It is very Irish and very natural.
July 22, 1844 (FJ)
Among the larger ones we have
No.4, "The Old Romance" by Tracy;
December 3, 1844 (FJ) The Art
Union Exhibition
"Which is the purtiest?" by Tracy for £50
December 11, 1844 (FJ) The
Art Union Exhibition
"Which is the purtiest?" by Tracy for £50 - Myles Sherlock, jun.,
Cork
21 December 1844 (N) Royal Dublin Society
...Mr. J. Tracy, whose
works show great originality and fine feeling; I would particularly instance
his "Peasant's Grave" of last year...
May 15, 1845 (FJ) Exhibition of the Society of Irish
Artists
Tracy, whose treatment of
Irish subjects is so homely and natural, has sent two charming pictures Nos. 5
and 8. In the former he has depicted a number of Irish peasants caught by a tempest,
and kneeling around a rudely sculptured cross in a forest, while the latter is
named "A Scene of By-gone Days". We fear, however, that the annals of
our country furnish too many recent instances of the scene represented to
designate it as one of by-gone days. At the door of a peasant's cottage are
grouped some policemen, and a hard-featured, relentless-looking man, into whose
hands the peasant is giving the key of his humble home, while the weaping wife, with the terrified children, proceed before.
This is a delightfully finished piece both in grouping and colouring.
June 17, 1845 (FJ) Royal Irish Art Union
From the Society of Irish
Artists, College street...8 A Scene of By-gone Days,
by J. Tracey (Dublin) £40...
December 11, 1845 (BL) The
Royal Irish Art Union - Distribution of Prizes
303 T M Gresham, Raheny; A Scene of By-Gone Days; J Tracy, artist - £40
13 December 1845 (N) The Royal Irish Art Union
- Distribution of Prizes
...303. T.M. Gresham, Raheny; A Scene of By-gone Days; J. Tracy, artist - 40l...
1853
“370. Christ driving the Devils out of the possessed Men. John Tracy”
Sproule, John (1854) The
Irish Industrial Exhibition of 1853, p.41, 461. J. McGlashan,
Dublin.
October 24, 1853, December 12, 1853 and January 17,
1854 (FJ) The New Irish Art Union
...No. 234 or 334 "Titon of Athens" by John Tracey, Dublin £80 (810)
Jones, Co, Stephen's Green...
January 27, 1859 (FJ) Cromo-Lithography
...The Peasant's Grave...The
original was painted by Mr. John Tracy, a Dublin artist of much merit, and was
purchased by the late Irish Art Union, and is now the property of Mr. JH Read
of Bray. The Lithographic impressions are to be laid before the Art Convernazione of the Royal dublin Society to-morrow evening.
January 29, 1859 (FJ) Photographic Society
Two exquisitely finished crom-lithographs of Tracy's fine picture of "the
peasant's grave" were exhibited by Mr. Harty of
Dame street, and proofs from the seventeen stones
required to produce the picture in the same colours, as the original...
29 January 1859 (N) Chromo-Lithography
We have been favoured with
a specimen of the very first effort ever made in Ireland in the new and
beautiful style of art...It is a colourful lithograph of Mr. Tracy's exquisite
picture, "The Peasant's Grave" by Mr. Harty
of Dame-street...
January 29, 1859 (FJ) Photographic Society
Two exquisitely finished crom-lithographs of Tracy's fine picture of "the
peasant's grave" were exhibited by Mr. Harty of
Dame street, and proofs from the seventeen stones required
to produce the picture in the same colours, as the original...
14 May 1859 (N) The City.
"The Peasant's
Grave" Mr. Harty's beautiful [colour]
chromo-lithograph of the "The Peasant's Grave", after the original
painting by J. Tracey, Esq., of this city, is now published...
July 24, 1860 (FJ) RHA
One of these pictures is
No.232 "Larry O'Toole and his wife praying for a
son and heir to the half acre" by Mr. J. Tracy...
8 May 1861 (IT) Art Union of Ireland
Prizeholders of one guinea…John Tracey, Heytesbury
Street…
2 June 1871 (FJ)
"Mrs. Floyd refusing
admittance to Mary Warner" by John Tracy...[painting]
18 January 1872 (FJ)
The Late rev Dr. O'Hanlon.
To sell by Auction..."Christ Casting Out Devils" by Tracey;...
29 November 1873 (N) Dublin Gossip
Amongst those past boyhood
there are few interested in Irish art who do not recall with a pleasant sadness
"The Peasant's Grave" by John Tracy, whose death swells the obituary
of the past week. That most truthful and touching picture was painted at a time
when some of his admirers were wont to say the artist's genius had waned, but
the facile grace with which a most difficult subject was set forth restored for
a while a reputation founded on works which, at one time, divided admiration
with those of the worthies of art. Amongst these, "The Eviction",
"The Roadside Disaster", "Timon"
and "The Pattern", were, perhaps, the most notable, and the
acquirement for the National Gallery of a couple of these really national Chef
d'oeuvres will be looked forward to by many outside those who are sad to-day at
the loss of a most kind-hearted genial man, and very true artist.
October 1876
Some time ago a picture by
the late John Tracy was exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy Exhibition of three
Irish peasant girls entitled "Which is the purtiest".
In July 1880, a fine painting of “The Crucifixation”,
size 54 x 38 unframed, painted for the owner by the late Mr. Tracey, was sent
for auction.
November 1887 Auction of Fine Arts property of Mr. Charles Brien, 51 South Richmond
street, Dublin ..."The Eviction", "Timen
and Alcibiades" and "Virginius and
Virginia" by John Tracey (three works illustrative of the versatile and
comprehensive genius of this talented Irish artist)...
In the 19th century, in major exhibitions
of art and industry in Ireland, very few Irish historical pictures appeared in
the art sections. The exception was the Irish exhibition at South Kensington in
1888, which was at a time when the Land League agitation had already proved to
be successful as a mass rural movement. Five paintings related to either
evictions or boycotts. This exhibition demonstrated the close connection
between the production of historical paintings and the emotion generated by
contemporary political movements. At
the Irish Exhibition at South Kensington the five 'land war' paintings were, 'A
Boycotted House' by Georgina Borrer; 'Boycotted' by
M.D. Webb-Robinson; 'Notice to Quit' by James Brenan (Headmaster of the Cork
School of Art); 'An Impending Eviction' by R. Staunton Cahill; 'The Eviction'
by J. Tracey.
Ref: John
Turpin. Irish History Painting. The GPA Irish Arts
Review Yearbook, (1989/1990), pp. 233-247
1840-1850 Dublin Directory
John Tr(e)ac(e)y, picture
restorer & painter, 6 Malpas St
Jno Tr(e)acy, 6 Malpas
St, Dublin City
John Tracey, picture cleaner, (15l.) 85
Bell-villa. (Heytesbury-street)
William Tracey,
Court of Chancery, (15l). 87 Bell-villa. (Heytesbury-street.)
July
15th, 1865. List of electors, City of Dublin.
John Tracey, 85 Heytesbury
street, Bell's villa .. G P
William Tracy, 87 Heytesbury street .. V G
Last
update: 13 July 2011