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Samuel McCloy
Biography
Samuel McCloy was an Irish painter of genre and figure subjects. He was born in Lisburn, Count Down and was apprenticed to a firm of engravers in Belfast before he studied at the Belfast School of Design, where he won a number of prizes. Obviously he must have shown great promise as he was sent to the Training School for Masters at South Kensington.
He left the training school in 1854 to become Master of the Waterford School of Art, where he received a salary of œ140 per annum. Bearing in mind that he was a teacher in the school and that he took morning and evening classes, this was a meagre salary. In 1865 he married one of his pupils, the 20 year old Ellen Lucy Harris, who bore him nine children. Around 1874 the McCloys moved to Belfast, where they lived at 9 Magdalen Street, a large three-story house near the University.
Although he continued to paint, his main income was from painting figures for illuminated addresses, designing Christmas and greetings cards, and supplying illustrations to Marcus Ward, a well known Belfast publishing firm. He also designed damask tablecloths for a local firm, but he gave this up as he found the work uninteresting. McCloy also produced many watercolours for an art gallery in London and worked as an illustrator for the Ilustrated London News. In addition, between 1874 and 1884 he exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy and the R.B.S.A.
When his uncle died and left him a property at 47 Solon New Road, Clapham the family moved to London. He was a friendly and jovial man who enjoyed playing games with his children and he often used them as models, bribing them to sit for hours with offers of a farthing or half penny reward
