The Abolition of Donnybrook Fair

Name: Erskine Nicol, R.S.A., A.R.A. (Edinburgh 1825-1904 Feltham)
Brand: The Abolition of Donnybrook Fair
Price: 1000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised GBP 1,250

Estimate

GBP 1,200 - GBP 1,800

Closed: 21 Nov 2019

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Erskine Nicol, R.S.A., A.R.A. (Edinburgh 1825-1904 Feltham)

The Abolition of Donnybrook Fair

Price Realised GBP 1,250

Closed: 21 Nov 2019

Price Realised GBP 1,250

Closed: 21 Nov 2019

Erskine Nicol, R.S.A., A.R.A. (Edinburgh 1825-1904 Feltham)
The Abolition of Donnybrook Fair
signed and dated 'E. Nicol. R.S.A. 63' (centre left)
pencil and watercolour heightened with bodycolour and gum arabic on paper
8⁷⁄₈ x 6¹⁄₂ in. (22.5 x 16.5 cm.)

with James Adams & Sons, 10 March 1988, lot 7, where purchased for the present collection.

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Lot Essay

By the 18th Century, Donnybrook fair was a two week festival held in August on Donnybrook Green, Dublin and had become much more a site of public entertainment and drinking than a traditional fair for the sale of horses and cattle. In the early 19th Century attempts began to be made to have it abolished. In 1855 the leasehold for the fair was bought by The Committee for the Abolition of Donnybrook Fair, and it was finally closed down. Around this time the name of the fair became a slang term for a brawl or riot.
Nicol depicted the fair in a monumental painting now at Tate Britain, as well as smaller individual figures such as this one.