Rev. WIlliam Bruce, D.D., 1757 – 1841,Circle of Sampson Towgood RochOval miniature portrait, oil on ivory mounted in an inscribed rose-gold frame with monogram and lock of hair verso.Property of the Perceval Collection.Provenance: by family decent.Cataloguer’s Note: Inscription verso credits the portrait as being byHorace Cox and is dated, Dublin 1798. Cox is unknown to this cataloguer who suggests it may have been as the result of a possible error made by the inscriber. MJS.Historical Note: Rev. Dr. William Bruce was born in Dublin and from 1798 was president of the Belfast Reading Society (now Linen Hall Library). Bruce, a leading opponent of the United Irishmen, iscredited with saving the library in the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion. He was principal of Belfast [Royal] Academy, 1790-1822. In 1782, together with Napper Tandy and others, he formed a DublinChamber of Commerce. It has been argued that this was the first national political movement which was ‘non-gentry, urban, part-Catholic, part-Dissenter’.
Size: 124 x 102 cm.