JOHN COMERFORD (IRISH c. 1770-1832) Portrait miniature of a Gentleman, possibly Sir David Wilkie, R.A. (1785-1841), wearing a blue coat with tied stock and frilled cravat Watercolour on ivory Gold frame the reverse glazed to reveal blue silk Oval, 58mm (2 1/2 in) high Exhibited: Comerford Collection at the Irish Architectural Archives, Dublin, 2009; Grosvenor House Fair, 1996, by D. S. Lavender Literature: Paul Caffrey, John Comerford and the Portrait Miniature in Ireland c 1620-1850, Kilkenny Archaeological Society, 1999, p. 51, Number 82, illustrated in colour p. 42; The Comerford Collection: Portrait Miniatures, (privately published, Dublin, 2009) pp 9, 38 (# 142), 67 (# sitter 38) Wilkie was born in Scotland and was a highly successful genre painter. He was influenced by the writings of Maria Edgeworth (1767-1848). Comerford acquired his early artistic skills by copying paintings in Kilkenny Castle, Carrick-on-Suir and other towns in the south-east. For some years he worked as an oil portrait painter in Kilkenny, Waterford, Carrick-on-Suir and other nearby places. Comerford was soon dividing his time between Dublin and Kilkenny. Comerford's style was influenced by a meeting in 1799 with the English artist George Chinnery (1774-1852), who was working in Dublin from 1795 to 1802. Comerford, who became a close life-long friend of Chinnery, adopted a variation on the English artist`s style of miniature painting, and with his encouragement he abandoned oil portraits to concentrate for the rest of his career on miniatures.