BURKE, Augustus Joseph Nicholas

1838 - 1891

Augustus Joseph Nicholas Burke was born at Waterslade House, Knocknagur, Tuam, Co. Galway on 28 July 1838, sixth son of William Burke, two of his brothers were Theobald Hubert Burke (1833-4 April 1909), 12th Baronet of Glinsk, and Thomas Henry Burke, Permanent Under Secretary at the Irish Office, their mother was Fanny Xaveria Tucker only daughter of Thomas Tucker of Brook Lodge, Sussex. Augustus displayed an early interest in drawing, with a love for depicting the people and land of Connemara and studied at the Royal Academy Schools in London. He resided in the Netherlands 1870-1872 where he completed some Dutch scenes and was one of the earliest Irish artists to travel to Brittany and he exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1863. In 1869, he took up residence in Dublin and was elected an Associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy on 18 July 1871 and a member on 26 August of the same year and where he was also Professor of Painting, from 1863 until his death, exhibiting fifteen Breton scenes at the Royal Hibernian Academy 1876-1878 and his 'The Feast-day of Notre Dame de Tremala, Brittany' is in their Council Room. The 1880s brought Burke to Walberswick in Suffolk, to an artist's colony created by Philip Wilson Steer. His brother Thomas, Under-Secretary for Ireland, was murdered during the Phoenix Park Murders of 1882 when he left his position at the Royal Hibernian Academy moving with the remaining members of his family, firstly to London and then to Italy. Two of his most famous paintings, 'Connemara Girl' and 'A Connemara Landscape' hang at the National Gallery of Ireland. His work is rare, mainly because the contents of his studio were destroyed during the fire that engulfed the Abbey Street buildings of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1916. Augustus Joseph Nicholas Burke died at 22 Via La Marmora, Florence on the 28 December 1891, aged 53.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 9 Dorchester Place, London
1863 70 Landscape
from 16 Cadogan Place, London
1864 117 Study from Nature
         268 On Knockle Beach from Sevenoaks Hill, Kent
from 24 Golden Square, London
1865 75 Maam Valley, Connemara
1866 224 A Souvenir of Moor Park, Fermoy, Ireland
         277 Under the old Ash-tree
1867 306 Cattle Ploughing, Wicklow, Ireland
from 13 Grove Road, St John's Wood
1869 59 A Dutch Landscape
from 2 Leinster Street, Dublin
1879 79 A Breton Farmyard
from 2 Cottage Studios, Holland Park Road, Kensington
1884 113 The Close of a Wet Day, Suffolk
         644 The Fishermen's Quay, Walberswick, Suffolk
from c/o A Davis, 17 King's Road, London
1891 363 A Corner in Perugia, Italy

---

Works by This Artist