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WARD, William
The Preservation of Sir Richard MacGwire, who fell into the Sea (by the descent of a Balloon) of the Coast of Ireland, on the 12th of May, 1785
Thomas Milton (Dublin) and J. James Barralet (London), June 4, 1787. Mezzotint, with hand-coloring, after J. James Barralet (1747-1815). Sheet size: 19½ x 24 inches.
Practical ballooning, in which humans could be airborne by means of a balloon, and permitted to descend to earth again, dates from the successful attempts of the Montgolfier Brothers in late 1782. Advances followed fast, and by early 1785 Blanchard and Jeffries crossed the English Channel. A few months later, Richard MacGwire attempted to top that feat with a balloon voyage cross the Irish Sea, but encountered disaster instead.
As a reward for his determination to survive the perils of falling into the Irish Sea, by keeping afloat until a rescue could be effected, this young pioneering aviator received from the Duke of Rutland, then Lieutenant-General of Ireland, the honor of knighthood and a captain's commission in the army. The three gentlemen standing up in the second boat are Lord Henry Fitzgerald, in center, Mr. Oliver, and Mr. Thornton, to the extreme right.
The composition owes rather a lot to the painting by John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark (The Detroit Institute of Arts), which was exhibited in London in 1778 and was so popular that it was engraved in mezzotint by Valentine Green three times, with issue dates of 1779 and twice in 1783.
Frankau 191 ("Sir Richard MacGwire").
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#3407 $6,000.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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