(c1806 - 1884)
George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson was born in Cobh, County Cork. He initially worked as a ship’s carpenter and later became Government Surveyor of Shipping and Emigrants in Cobh. Atkinson turned to painting in his mid-thirties and was entirely self-taught. A contemporary commentator later noted that his paintings of ships were ‘faultless in every detail’. In 1849, he held a one-man exhibition in a pavilion in Cobh, marking the visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in that year. He also recorded the royal visit through several paintings. Atkinson had three sons and a daughter, all of whom followed in their father’s footsteps in becoming painters.
