BROCAS, Henry, senior (1762/5–1837), painter and engraver, was born in Dublin, the fifth son of Robert Brocas of Dublin, and Bridget Brocas (née Taylor) of Wexford. His brother James (1754–80) was also an artist. Self-taught, Henry made a particular study of the English masters, and practised as a landscape painter, mainly in watercolours. Also known for his engravings, he produced caricatures, topographical views, and portraits for a variety of Dublin magazines and periodicals. An early political caricature, ‘The loves of the fox and the badger’, appeared in Exshaw's Magazine in 1784. He was also responsible for a number of satirical sketches connected with the act of union. Brocas produced engraved portraits of many of the most eminent personalities of the day, among them John Foster (qv), Earl Fitzwilliam (qv), and Walter Hussey Burgh (qv). His portrait of Robert Emmet (qv) was drawn and engraved for publication on the day of Emmet's trial (19 September 1803).
Brocas contributed to various Dublin exhibitions between 1800 and 1812, and in 1837 submitted four drawings to the RHA's exhibition. In August 1800 he was appointed master of the Dublin Society's Landscape and Ornament school. Although he held this post until his death, he was considered unsatisfactory as a teacher. He was regularly censured by the school's committee of fine art over his erratic methods and poor punctuality, and in December 1832 was suspended for a time for ‘insubordination and disobedience of orders’. During his mastership he ensured that many English watercolours were purchased by the RDS. By May 1837 poor health prevented him from attending classes, and he died 2 November 1837 in Dublin. His four sons all became painters.
His eldest son, James Henry Brocas (1790–1848) was born in Dublin, and was trained at the Dublin Society's School of Figure Drawing, where he obtained prizes in 1802 and 1803, and a medal for etching. In 1802 he contributed etched portraits of cattle as part of the Dublin Society's ‘Survey of County Dublin’. He submitted landscape paintings and portraits of cattle and horses to various Dublin exhibitions between 1801 and 1816, including the Royal Irish Institution in 1815. He left Dublin c.1834 and settled in Cork, where he practised until his death. Brocas's work was again on show in Dublin in 1845, when he exhibited at the Society of Artists in Dame Street. His portraits of Samuel Kyle, bishop of Cork, and Thomas Deane (qv) were shown at the Cork Exhibition of 1852. His own portrait, executed by Robert Lucius West (qv) in 1814, is in the NGI. James Henry Brocas died 14 January 1848.
The second son Samuel Frederick Brocas (c.1792–1847), was born in Dublin, and studied under his father at the Dublin Society Schools (c.1803–7), during which time he won medals for his flower painting, etching, and figure drawing. A successful artist, he produced topographical views, and landscapes in both watercolour and oils. He worked mostly in Dublin, and occasionally in Limerick. He contributed to exhibitions in Dublin in 1804, 1809, and 1812. His landscapes were first shown by the RHA in 1828, when he exhibited views of north Wales. He continued to exhibit with the RHA until 1847. His appreciation of urban architecture is reflected in his twelve views of Dublin, his best-known works, which date from 1817. Engraved by his brother Henry, they were printed between 1818 and 1829 by J. Le Petit of Dublin under the title Select views of Dublin. Initially they were intended to be part of a Book of views of Ireland, which was never published. In 1826 Brocas published, from 15 Henry Street, where he was living with his father, a folio lithograph, executed by himself, ‘King John's Castle Limerick’. Another lithograph by him, entitled ‘A view of Trinity College and the east portico of the Bank of Ireland’, was also published in Dublin. Brocas was a member of the Society of Artists. Samuel Frederick Brocas died 14 May 1847 at his home in Lower Baggot Street, Dublin.
The third son William Brocas (c.1794–1868) was born in Dublin, where he worked mainly as a portrait and figure painter, producing landscapes in oils and watercolours, genre paintings, engravings, and political and social caricatures. A regular exhibitor, in 1809 and 1812 he exhibited with the Society of Artists, and his work was often shown by the RHA (1828–63). He became president of the Society of Irish Artists, which held its first exhibition in 1843. His oils include ‘View of Bray Head’ and ‘Roderick O'Conor's Castle’, which was purchased by the Royal Irish Art Union in 1841 to be given as a prize. ‘Departure of Irish emigrants’ was also purchased by the art union the following year, and was shown as part of the Dublin Exhibition in 1865. His most notable patron was Henry Westenra (1792–1860), third Baron Rossmore. Brocas painted a series of views of the family's estate, and numerous portraits of the Westenra family, his small full-length portrait of Anne Douglas Westenra being the most successful. His portrait of the writer Charles Maturin (qv) was subsequently engraved by H. Meyer for publication in the New Monthly Magazine (1819). His etchings, after Hogarth's, were engraved and published in Dublin. Elected ARHA in 1854, he became a full member in 1860. William Brocas died 12 November 1868 at his home, 120 Baggot Street, Dublin, and left all his paintings to his brother Henry Brocas jun. Nine of William's portraits of the Westenra family are held at Florence Court, Co. Fermanagh.
The fourth son Henry Brocas junior (1798–1873) was born in Dublin and trained under his father. A landscape artist and an engraver, he collaborated with his brother Samuel on the publication in 1820 of a series of views of Dublin, engraving twelve topographical scenes from Samuel's original drawings, for which he is best remembered. He also etched some copies of Hogarth's work, including ‘The election’, and produced caricatures for McCleary of Nassau Street in Dublin, while he himself published ‘The doctor dismissing death’. His portrait of Richard Kirwan (qv), engraved in stipple, appeared as the frontispiece of the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 1847–50. He exhibited at the RHA on several occasions (1828–72). His submissions in watercolour and oils consist primarily of landscapes, many of which depict views of Co. Dublin and north Wicklow. In 1850 he produced a painting depicting the celebrations that marked the visit of the viceroy Lord Clarendon (qv) to Crom castle. When poor health left his father unable to attend to his duties as master of the RDS's School of Landscape and Ornament, Brocas replaced him temporarily in May 1837, only to be replaced himself by Robert Lucius West in March 1838. Despite opposition from the society's fine art committee, who supported the talented Belfast artist Andrew Nicholl (qv) ARHA, Brocas finally secured the mastership in May 1838, when he was elected with seventy votes. He was not particularly successful as a teacher. In 1849, when the Board of Trade began funding the school, he was kept on as assistant master, but was dismissed in October 1854 when the Department of Science and Art in London took over the running of the institution. Henry Brocas jun. died in Dublin in 1873.