Petrie, Charles (1789-1866)

Irish antiquarian, painter, musicologist, and folklorist. Through his skills as an artist, Petrie was commissioned to illustrate several early Irish guidebooks with sketches of ancient Irish historic sites and ruins. He then began a more systematic collection of sketches and paintings of Irish antiquities which he undertook under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy. Petrie supplemented his visual depictions by several essays on antiquarian, archaeological, and architectural subjects; but on his travels throughout the island he began to collect a large body of Irish airs which he published as The Ancient Music of Ireland (1855). Petrie's highly competent sketches provide an invaluable archive of many ancient sites and antiquities in Ireland which have since deteriorated badly or disappeared entirely.