24/08/2026
This lyrical portrait of Jane Bryan of Cong, Co. Galway, was painted by Maria Spilsbury (1776–1820), a gifted but now largely overlooked British artist. Trained by her father, the engraver Jonathan Spilsbury, and later under Sir William Beechey, Spilsbury exhibited extensively between 1792 and 1813 and became particularly admired for her portraits of children.
Although very little can be gleaned about the sitter, we do know that a family by this name lived in Castletown townland, near Cong village in Cong civil parish, in the 1850s. The composition suggests that the young sitter had a strong connection to this area of Ireland, as it includes a background resembling the terrain visible from the western side of the narrow strip of land separating Lough Mask from Lough Corrib, between Cong and the village of Maum. The region was widely regarded as one of Ireland’s most picturesque and historically resonant destinations, lying some 121 miles west of Dublin. Another portrait by Spilsbury, Miss Jackson of Enniscoe, County Mayo (c.1814–1819), further attests to the artist’s familiarity with the vistas and atmosphere of the west of Ireland.
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Maria Spilsbury (1776-1820)
Portrait of Jane Bryan of Cong, Co. Galway, c.1814-1819
Oil on canvas
29 3/8 x 22 7/8 in. (74.5 x 58 cm)