Brief Biography-Sir Martin Archer Shee was born in Dublin in 1769 and raised in Bray on the city’s outskirts by his aunt. At fourteen, he attended the Dublin Society School in William Street under Francis Robert West. West was proficient at crayon drawing, which he passed on to Shee. In 1788, Edmund Burke introduced him to Sir Joshua Reynolds, and two years later, the Royal Academy schools admitted him. Gilbert Stuart and Reynolds influenced his work at this stage, and he was later impressed by John Hoppner. He married in 1796 and lived in Golden Square, eventually settling in Cavendish square. Sir Martin Archer Shee was an academy member in 1800 and became president after the death of Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1830. He was also a writer of many books on art, his Rhymes on Art being the most famous.