{{short description|Irish painter}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=May 2023}} {{Infobox artist | name = Nathaniel Grogan | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{circa|1740}} | birth_place = Cork, Ireland | death_date = {{death date and age|1807|1740|df=y}} | death_place = Cork | nationality = | education = | alma_mater = | known_for = | notable_works = | movement = | spouse = }} '''Nathaniel Grogan (''the Elder'')''' (1740–1807) was an Irish painter from Cork,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nathaniel Grogan |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG29896 |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=British Museum}}</ref> and one of the most important Irish genre painters of the late 18th century.
==Life and family== Nathaniel Grogan was born around 1740 in Cork. He was originally an apprentice to his father, a turner and block maker, but he had a love for the arts and taught himself to draw. His early works were in chalk on board, as they were the only materials available.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Minch |first=Rebecca |date=2009 |title=Grogan, Nathaniel |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/grogan-nathaniel-a3658 |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |language=en}}</ref> He trained in Cork under the local painter John Butts,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Nathaniel Grogan, Irish Landscape Artist: Biography, Paintings |url=http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/biographies-of-irish-artists/nathaniel-grogan-the-elder.htm |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=www.visual-arts-cork.com}}</ref> and was influenced by Dutch painters such as Hobbema and Heemskerck. He was strongly discouraged from pursuing art by his father, which led to him eventually leaving home.<ref name=":2">Strickland, Henry G. [https://www.libraryireland.com/irishartists/nathaniel-grogan.php A Dictionary of Irish Artists.] Maunsel & Company, Limited, Dublin and London. 1913. pp. 413–15. Retrieved 19 May 2023.</ref>
Once established as an artist in Cork, Grogan lived on the south side of the Mardyke in a small house. He died there in 1807, and is buried at the church of Saint Finnbarr.<ref name=":2" /> Grogan had 19 children, but only 2 surviving sons, Nathaniel ({{circa|1756}}–1825) and Joseph. Both his sons also achieved some success as a painters and were known for making copies of their father's works.<ref name=":0" />
== Career == thumb|''Boats on the River Lee below Tivoli, County Cork'' ({{circa|1785}}) by Grogan
He enlisted in the British army and served in America during the War of Independence and in the West Indies.<ref name=":2" /> Little is known of the paintings he produced during this period but advertisements have been found in the ''Pennsylvania Ledger'' of December 1777 offering "sign and ornamental painting".<ref name=":0" /> Having returned to Ireland, he painted decorations in houses, such as the walls, doors, and ceilings of Mount Vernon for Mr Lane.<ref name=":2" />
He went on to produce numerous oil and watercolour paintings depicting landscapes and genre scenes of his native Cork. His ''Winter Scene with Skaters'' is seen as one of his better works.<ref name=":2" /> He is notable for his works depicting "Irish peasant life" which was an unusual subject for Irish painters during this period and show the influence of Dutch genre painting and of the English artists, George Morland and Henry Walton.<ref name=":0" /> Grogan's genre paintings, often humorous, offer a rare depiction of social life in the lower classes during this time<ref>{{Citation |last=Kelly |first=Niamh Ann |title=Ultimate Witnesses - The Visual Culture of Death, Burial and Mourning in Famine Ireland, Extract |date=2017 |url=https://arrow.tudublin.ie/totalarcscbk/15/ |access-date=2023-05-19 |publisher=Quinnipiac University Press |doi=10.21427/bkf9-kq94}}</ref> with Anne Crookshank and the Knight of Glin stating that Grogan's genre paintings were "the most important paintings of Irish peasant life of the period in existence".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vernon Mount Park {{!}} Cork |url=http://www.vernonmountpark.ie/artwork-interior.php |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=www.vernonmountpark.ie}}</ref>
He exhibited 4 landscapes with the Free Society of Artists in London in 1782, which led him to spend some time in London. He also etched some bookplates.<ref name=":2" /> His best known etchings were a set of 12 views of Cork in mezzotint, and an engraving of a portrait of Catherine Fitzgerald, countess of Desmond. Grogan was mentioned in Maria Edgeworth's correspondence, citing 2 works of his that were of interest to her. He was also popular with collectors in Ireland.<ref name=":0" />
== Legacy == The first exhibition of the Cork Society for Promoting the Fine Arts in 1815 exhibited 25 paintings by Grogan. 18 works by Grogan, including a self-portrait were featured in the 1852 Cork Exhibition.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> Walter G. Strickland states that he "enjoyed a considerable reputation in Cork; but his art is crude and hardly deserves the encomiums it received" and believed that further training would have improved his work and allowed him to gain success outside of Cork due to his natural talent.<ref name=":2" /> However, his work has been reappraised and is now regarded as one of the most significant provincial Irish painters of the late 18th century.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
''View of Cork'', in the collection of the city's Crawford Art Gallery, was previously believed to be by Grogan, and is now attributed to his teacher, John Butts.<ref>{{cite web|title=VIEW OF CORK John Butts (1728-1765)|url=http://www.crawfordartgallery.ie/images/educationimages/WorksheetPrimary/John%20Butts.pdf|publisher=Crawford Art Gallery|accessdate=20 July 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-03-19 |title=A Question Of Attribution: The Arcadian Landscapes Of Nathaniel Grogan And John Butts - Crawford Art Gallery |url=https://crawfordartgallery.ie/a-question-of-attribution-the-arcadian-landscapes-of-nathaniel-grogan-and-john-butts/ |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=crawfordartgallery.ie |language=en-GB}}</ref> Some paintings attributed to Grogan the elder have been reevaluated in the 21st century as possibly by his son, Nathaniel, who is considered to be a better figure painter than his father.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vallely |first=J.B. |date=2015 |title=Through the eyes of the artist |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44743895 |journal=Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=214–224 |issn=0488-0196}}</ref>
Grogan's ''Whipping the Herring out of Town – A Scene of Cork'' was selected as number 47 in the Cork in 50 Artworks series by the ''Irish Examiner''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vallig |first=Marc O’Sullivan |date=2022-03-28 |title=Cork In 50 Artworks, No 47: Whipping the Herring out of Town, by Nathaniel Grogan |url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-40836920.html |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=Irish Examiner |language=en}}</ref>
== Selected works ==
* ''The Bantry Bard'' * ''The Itinerant Preacher'' * ''The Cronies'' * ''The Wake'' * ''The Quoit Players'' * ''Irish Fair''<ref name=":2" />
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070825194804/http://www.crawfordartgallery.com/Paintings/NGrogan.html Grogan at the Crawford Art Gallery]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grogan, Nathaniel}} Category:1740s births Category:1807 deaths Category:British Army personnel of the American Revolutionary War Category:Artists from Cork (city) Category:18th-century Irish painters Category:18th-century Irish male artists Category:19th-century Irish painters Category:Irish male painters Category:19th-century Irish male artists