"The Cavalier's Escape", Once a Week
Matthew James Lawless (b. Dublin, 1837; d. Bayswater, 1864) was a painter, etcher, illustrator and cartoonist. Influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, he contributed to Punch, London Society, Good Words and Once a Week, as well as illustrating several books. His best known painting is "The Sick Call", showing a clergyman being taken across water in Holland to a dying man’s home, which is held in the National Gallery of Ireland and is referred to in Seamus Heaney's poem "The Biretta".
References[]
- Simon Houfe, The Dictionary of 19th Century British Book Illustrators, Antique Collector's Club, 1996, p. 203
- Paul Goldman, ‘Lawless, Matthew James (1837–1864)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004, accessed 20 Aug 2010
- Biographies of Irish Artists: L-R, Visual-arts-cork.com
- Princess Grace Irish Library