SAMPSON TOWGOOD ROCHE (IRISH 1759-1847) Portrait miniature of a Gentleman, circa 1790 wearing a brown coat, white waistcoat and frilled cravat Watercolour on ivory Gold frame with gold mount and blue glass border, the reverse with pearl monogram JY Oval, 53 mm (2 1/4 in) high Exhibited: Comerford Collection at the Irish Architectural Archives, Dublin, 2009 Literature: The Comerford Collection: Portrait Miniatures, (privately published, Dublin, 2009) pp 8, 33 (# 115); Paul Caffrey, John Comerford and the Portrait Miniature in Ireland c 1620-1850, Kilkenny Archaeological Society, number 57 Sampson Towgood Roche (1759-1847) was an Irish painter of miniatures. The son of William and Mary Roche of Youghal, in County Cork, was born deaf. It is unknown with whom he studied; he may have been self-taught. By 1779 he had established himself in Dublin, and in the years following is known to have worked in England. Beginning in 1786 he lived in Cork; while there he married a distant cousin. In 1792 the couple moved to Bath, where his practice flourished. Roche returned to the family home in County Waterford in 1822; there he died in 1847.