Thomas Robinson

Possibly Dublin, Society of Artists, 1809

STRUCTURE Original canvas. PAINT SURFACE There are some areas of re-touching visible along the top of the canvas, to the lower left and to the lower right. There are approximately ten small patches verso, presumably to strengthen some areas. There some minor scattered surface marks, mainly to the upper right hand corner of the painting. ULTRAVIOLET Ultraviolet light does not reveal additional re-touching. FRAME Held in an ornate gilt wood frame.
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Giant's Causeway is a remarkable geological site located on the north-east coast of Northern Ireland, just north of Bushmills. It consists of a large number of basalt columns resulting from the eruption of a volcano. The top of the columns form stepping stones which lead from the cliff and disappear into the sea. The largest columns are thirty-six feet high.  The causeway was formed as a result of volcanic activity, but early legends link it to Fionn mac Cumhaill, an Irish giant who is said to have built it so that he could walk to Scotland to fight Benandonner, but fell asleep before reaching Scotland. The causeway was rediscovered in the late seventeenth century when Sir Richard Bulkeley presented a paper to the Royal Society and in 1739 the Irish artist Susannah Drury produced a watercolour of it which was engraved and widely disseminated.

Thomas Robinson was a pupil of George Romney who settled in Dublin in about 1790. He later lived in Lisburn in County Antrim with his family, and then moved to Belfast for seven years between 1801 and 1808 before settling back in Dublin where he died. In 1809 he was appointed President of the Society of Artists where he exhibited a picture of Giants Causeway which was subsequently desposed of in a raffle.