Brief Biography-Garret Morphy was the first Irish-born artist of note; however, it is unknown when he was born, but it may have been in the 1650s. He received tuition from the Dutch artist Gaspar Smitz, who came to Ireland via England in c. 1670. Morphy went to Holland in the 1680s and encountered Gaspar Netscher, and in that same decade, Morphy painted in England, where Peter Lely influenced his work. He returned to Ireland in c. 1689 and painted for numerous distinguished clients. As a Catholic, his predominant sitters were of the same religion; however, when catholic landowners began to lose their status in Ireland, his uptake clientele became more protestant. He is estimated to have raised the level of Irish portraiture to that of Dutch and English artists. His most famous portrait is of Archbishop Oliver Plunkett.