Martello Publishing, 2021
Hardback, 120 pages

In the 1790s a young artist decided to create a portrait of Dublin. James Malton’s timing was impeccable, as the second city of the British Empire was then among the most splendid in Europe, before Dublin went into a long decline after the Act of Union in 1800. Malton died in obscurity at the age of thirty-eight, and little is now known of him. His prints, including those of Trinity College, the Four Courts, the Custom House, St Patrick’s Cathedral and St Stephen’s Green, are admired by millions every year, and have become, as the Irish Times noted, ‘ubiquitous to the point of invisibility’. With a playful commentary on each print from Trevor White, Director of the Little Museum of Dublin, and with essays from distinguished historians including David Dickson and Kathryn Milligan, this book explores Malton’s life and times, the social fabric of Dublin and the political and economic turmoil of the time of the prints, and of course the buildings and scenes he depicted.

Trevor White is director of the Little Museum of Dublin and was founding publisher of the Dubliner magazine.