George Victor Du Noyer MRIA (1817 – 3 January 1869) was an Irish painter, geologist and

antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

descent. As an artist, his favourite medium was

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

, but a large number of sketches by him in pencil and other mediums also survive. He was a gifted and extremely prolific artist. Most of his work relates exclusively to Ireland. Throughout his life, he was often commissioned to draw or paint realistic depictions of locations all over Ireland (making many of his works interesting from an Irish historical perspective). Much of this work took place during his time with the Irish Ordnance Survey and particularly the

Geological Survey of Ireland Geological Survey Ireland or Geological Survey of IrelandS.I. No. 300/2002 - Communications, Energy and Geological Survey of Ireland (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2002 ( ga, Suirbhéireacht Gheolaíochta ...

Personal life

Born in 1817 and raised in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland, George Victor Du Noyer, he was the son of Louis Victor Du Noyer (1782–1868) and Margaret Du Bédat (1794–1876), both of Huguenot descent. They had married in 1816. His father, Louis Victor, was a French teacher in Dublin. On 4 January 1858, George Victor Du Noyer married Frances Adélaide Du Bédat (1833–1914). They had five children – William Victor (b. 1859), Fanny (b. April 1864 – d. 2 January 1869), Charlotte Eugéne (b. 20 July 1865), and Henry Westropp and Joseph Du Bédat, twins (b. 18 March 1867). The family lived at Albertville, Sydney Avenue,

Blackrock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a Enterprise risk management, risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackR ...

, Co . Dublin, for many years. On 3 January 1869, George Victor Du Noyer died of

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as Scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'' a Group A streptococcus (GAS). The infection is a type of Group A streptococcal infection (Group A strep). It most commonly affects childr ...

while on Survey in

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, one day after his daughter Fanny died of the same disease. Du Noyer was buried in Co. Antrim. Throughout his life Du Noyer lived at various addresses in Dublin. However, the nature of his work meant that he was often absent from Dublin for long periods at a time.

Career

In 1834 he was employed by the Civilian Department of the Irish Ordnance Survey. He remained there for a number of years – during a period when Ireland was being mapped by the Ordnance Survey for the first time. He became a member of the 'Geological Society of Dublin' on 20 November 1843. In October 1848, he became a Temporary Assistant Geologist with the

. In April 1849, he became an Assistant Geologist with the Survey. In April 1867, Du Noyer became the Geological Survey of Ireland's first District Surveyor and moved to Carrigfergus, Co. Antrim. Du Noyer's art includes works on plants, animals, fish, fossils, geology, maps, landscapes, people, country houses, historic buildings and antiquities, as well as on other subjects. One of his best and most famous works is ''Killiney Head looking towards Bray, Co. Wicklow, 1866'', a landscape in watercolour. When compared with this part of

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

today, a remarkable change is noticeable – with what was in Du Noyer's time a rural area having since become part of the city of Dublin. Most of his best work is in the collections of the

, the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...

, the

National Museum of Ireland The National Museum of Ireland ( ga, Ard-Mhúsaem na hÉireann) is Ireland's leading museum institution, with a strong emphasis on national and some international archaeology, Irish history, Irish art, culture, and natural history. It has thre ...

, the National Botanic Gardens. and the

Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland is a learned society based in Ireland, whose aims are "to preserve, examine and illustrate all ancient monuments and memorials of the arts, manners and customs of the past, as connected with the antiquit ...

. However, his work is also located elsewhere and some is in private collections. Note that prints of his most famous geological sketches can be viewed and purchased at the offices of the

Du Noyer was a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He was also a member of a number of societies associated with his various fields of interest.

References & footnotes

Bibliography

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Du Noyer, George Victor 1817 births 1869 deaths 19th-century Irish painters Irish male painters 19th-century Irish geologists Irish illustrators Irish surveyors Irish people of French descent Infectious disease deaths in Northern Ireland Deaths from streptococcus infection Scientific illustrators 19th-century Irish male artists Artists from County Dublin Scientists from County Dublin