Art review: Cork-born artist Adam Buck

Des O’Sullivan reviews new Crawford exhibition on work of Adam Buck.

THE Crawford Gallery is about to celebrate the work of Cork-born period portraitist, Adam Buck (1759-1833).

One of Regency England’s most sought-after portrait painters, he worked in Cork and Dublin for 20 years, before moving to London in 1795. There, he immediately gained a roster of star clients, including the Duke of York and his scandalous mistress, Mary Anne Clarke.

The second of four surviving children, Adam was born to a family of silversmiths in Cork. His younger brother, Frederick (1765-1840), became an established miniature painter, who worked in Cork for his lifetime.

The Adam Buck exhibition at the Crawford, from February 4 to April 9, 2016, is a distilled version of last year’s exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, in Oxford. It is entitled: ‘An Elegant Society: Adam Buck, an artist in the age of Jane Austen’.

It contains works from the National Gallery of Ireland, the Royal Collections’ Trust and the Crawford Permanent Collection. A monograph by Peter Darvall, will accompany the exhibition.