Robert Carver (painter)

Robert Carver was born in Dublin circa 1730. His father was Richard Carver (died 1754), who was a landscape and history painter born in Waterford. Carver was initially trained by his father, and later studied under Robert West at West's school on George's Lane, Dublin. Carver was married to Anne Jolly. Their only known child was a son, John Carver, who died in 1766. Carver suffered from gout for a number of years. Carver died of pneumonia on 14 November 1791 at his home at 13 Bow Street, Covent Garden. He is buried at the churchyard of St Paul's, Covent Garden. ==Career==

He began exhibiting watercolours in Dublin, which were well received. In a Cork theatre, Carver painted scenery and in 1754, he succeeded John Lewis as scenery painter at Smock Alley Theatre, where he painted a wide array of scenery. He would later be employed by the revived rival theatre in Crow Street where he painted for Spranger Barry among others. His sets for the 1766 King Arthur was reported: "the sudden Changes of the beautiful Variety of Scenery, seemed to surprise and alarm the Audience, as the effect of real Magic". Carver worked with Thomas Sheridan in converting a barn into a theatre for a staging of Jack the giant-queller at Longfield, most likely in County Londonderry. Carver exhibited 20 landscapes with the Society of Artists, Dublin between 1765 and 1768. At the time of his death, Carver was completing a series of paintings for his patron Lord Altamont in Westport, County Mayo. ==References==