Maclise, Daniel RA

1806

1870

Maclise was born Daniel McLeish at Cork, Ireland, son of a Scottish Highlander who had been stationed in Ireland in the army. In 1825 he made a sketch of Sir Walter Scott when the latter was visiting a bookshop in Cork. Scott signed the drawing; a lithograph was made from it and over 500 copies were sold. Maclise came to London in 1827, where he sketched Charles Kean as Norval in “Douglas”. The lithograph of that sketch met with similar success. Between 1830 and 1838 he contributed 80 portrait drawings to “Fraser’s Magazine”, subsequently known as the “Maclise Portrait Gallery”. The subjects included Sir Walter Scott, Coleridge, Thackeray, Wordsworth, Count d’Orsay, Charles Lamb, Carlyle, Disraeli and Leigh Hunt. He met Charles Dickens in 1830 and a warm friendship sprang up between them. Maclise really made his name as a history painter. He began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1829 and showed work fairly regularly there up until his death. In 1835 he was elected Associate Member of the Royal Academy, at which time he changed his name from McLeish to Maclise. He became a full Academician five years later. His work was highly acclaimed at the time, although there was a faltering interest in the painting of historical subjects towards the end of his life. He declined the offer to be made President of the Royal Academy after Eastlake’s death and is said to have refused a knighthood. He died from pneumonia at the age of 64 at his house in Cheyne Walk.