Earliest Views of Kells

Three early images of Kells are known to exist. These are by Vallancey (1784) Beranger (?) and Turner (1794). It is thought that the original image was painted by Vallancey in 1784 and that this image was copied in later years by Beranger and Turner. The original Vallancey is in a private collection and the Beranger and Turner are held by the Royal Irish Academy and the National Library of Ireland. Interestingly there are subtle differences between all three, most notably Beranger turned Vallanceys circular painting into a rectangle by adding detail into the corners that was omitted in the original. Beranger also changed the location of the rider on the bridge and added what looks like a person walking after the horse. All three have the original nine arches of the bridge correct (some have now been filled on on the south side and are obscured from view) The detail of the bridge looks very different now as the bridge was widened in subsequent years. There is another copy also by Beranger, but in circular format, in a private collection in Dublin.

Here is a short biography on the three artists:

General Charles Vallancey (1731 – 1812)

Vallancey was a British military surveyor sent to Ireland. He remained here and became an authority on Irish antiquities. Some of his theories would be rejected today, but his drawings, for example, were painstakingly accurate compared to existent artefacts. Vallancey came to Ireland before 1770 to assist in a military survey of the island, and made the country his adopted home. His attention was strongly drawn towards the history, philology, and antiquities of Ireland at a time when they were almost entirely ignored, and he published the following, among other works: Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, 6 vols., between 1770 and 1804; Essay on the Irish Language, 1772; Grammar of the Irish Language, 1773; Vindication of the Ancient Kingdom of Ireland, 1786; Ancient History of Ireland proved from the Sanscrit Books, 1797; Prospectus of a Dictionary of the Aire Coti or Antient Irish, 1802. He was a member of many learned societies, was created an honorary LL.D., was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1780,[3] and became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1784. During the Insurrection of 1798 he furnished the Government with plans for the defence of Dublin. Queen's-bridge, Dublin, was built from his designs. He died 8 August 1812, aged 81

Reverend Joseph Turner (d. 1835)

Reverend Joseph Turner's antiquarian sketches in the Royal Irish Academy collection comprise 55 antiquarian watercolours of castles, churches, etc., from various Irish counties throughout Leinster, Munster and Ulster The sketches were executed in 1799 and are thought to comprise copies of drawings that had been collected by William Burton Conyngham (1733-96). The collection includes copies of works by a wide variety of eighteenth-century artists including George Barret, Gabriel Beranger, Angelo Maria Bigari, John Dawson, Jonathan Fisher, Seymour Foster, Henry Graham, Thomas Ivory, Henry Pelham, and Charles Vallancey.

In the days before photography albums of sketches like these were highly sought-after by those with an interest in Irish antiquities. They would have formed attractive additions to many gentry libraries in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Gabriel Beranger (c.1729-1817)

Beranger was born into a Huguenot family in the Netherlands. He came to Ireland circa 1750 and remained there for the rest of his life. He ran a print shop and artist's warehouse in Dublin's South George's Street for more than a decade after 1766. During the 1760s and 1770s he painted watercolours of scenes in the Dublin region. He also went on expeditions to many other parts of Ireland, sometimes accompanied by fellow artists. Places he visited to sketch landscapes or antiquarian buildings included Wicklow, Wexford, Navan, Dundalk, Glendalough, and Moira, County Down. He went on an extended expedition to Connacht and Ulster in 1779, accompanied by an Italian artist, Angelo Bigari.

William Burton Conyngham and Charles Vallancey were among his patrons. In the years 1779 to 1783 Beranger was employed by Burton Conyngham to illustrate Irish antiquities on behalf of the newly founded Hibernian Antiquarian Society. This was the context of Beranger's journey through Connacht with Bigari in 1779. The artists were tasked with recording antiquities in the landscape, in what Peter Harbison has described as 'the most extensive archaeological survey undertaken in Ireland before the Ordnance Survey. They made contact with local scholars such as Charles O'Conor of Ballinagare. The Hibernian Antiquarian Society grand scheme to publish the visual record of antiquities that they produced was never implemented. A few engravings of Beranger's drawings were published anonymously in Colonel Vallancey's serial publication, Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis (Dublin, 1786-1807).

Despite his industriousness, it appears to have been difficult for Beranger to make a living exclusively as an artist in Dublin, even with his second wife's wealth and the occasional patronage of William Burton Conyngham and Charles Vallancey. To supplement his income in later life he took a government job in 1783 as an assistant ledger-keeper in the exchequer office, remaining there for six years.