120 A HISTORY OF 



the round ; l and, to enable him to go to London, fifty 

 guineas were paid to Robert L. West 2 for a portrait 

 of the Right Hon. John Foster, a vice-president. A 

 little prior to this, Andrew R. Twigg, a late student of 

 the Society's schools, presented a full-length portrait of 

 General Vallancey, for which the General sat to him. 

 It was offered " as a first fruits of his academic studies, 

 in the hope that it may be deemed worthy of a place 

 in the new board-room." Fifty guineas were voted 

 to Twigg, that he might journey to London to study 

 the works of eminent artists. 



On June 20, 1805, a letter was read from Caleb 

 Whitefoord, chairman of a committee of subscribers 

 (who were members of the Society for the Encourage- 

 ment of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, London), 

 to a fund being raised for James Barry, artist, " who 

 has enriched this island by his productions ; and whose 

 works would have done honour to the most polished and 

 enlightened ages of antiquity." Barry was represented as 

 having had long and painful struggles with adversity and 

 privation, while his independence of character concealed 

 the fact. The members of the Dublin Society were 

 invited to subscribe towards providing an honourable 

 ease for the remainder of his days, and an annuity of 

 ;£i2o per annum was secured to him. Barry was born 



1 Martin Cregan, born in 1788, practised painting both in Dublin 

 and London. He was a foundation member of the Royal Hibernian 

 Academy, and for years its President. Cregan died in 1870. The 

 National Gallery, Dublin, possesses a copy made by him of Reynolds' 

 " Master Crewe." 



2 Son of Francis R. West. On his father's death in 1809, he 

 succeeded him as master of the school, a post which he held until 

 1845. In that year he was granted a pension by the Treasury, and 

 he died in 1849. His memorial stated that he had thirty-five years' 

 service, and that his grandfather, father, and himself had served the 

 Society during a period of ninety-five years. R. L. West painted 

 portraits and historical subjects, and in 1808 exhibited in the Royal 

 Academy a subject from Gray's Elegy. 



