Editing Daniel Maclise (section)

==Early life==
Maclise was born in [[Cork (city)|Cork]], Ireland (then part of the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]), the son of Alexander McLish (also known as McLeish, McLish, McClisse or McLise), a tanner or shoemaker, but formerly a [[Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons)|Scottish Highlander]] soldier. His education was of the plainest kind, but he was eager for culture, fond of reading, and anxious to become an artist. His father, however, placed him in employment, in 1820, in Newenham's Bank, where he remained for two years, before leaving to study at the [[Cork Institute of Technology|Cork School of Art]]. In 1825 it happened that [[Sir Walter Scott]] was travelling in Ireland, and young Maclise, having seen him in a bookseller's shop, made a surreptitious sketch of the great man, which he afterwards [[lithograph]]ed. It became very popular, and led to many commissions for portraits, which he executed, in pencil.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Various influential friends recognised Maclise's genius and promise, and were anxious to furnish him with the means of studying in London; but refusing all financial assistance, he saved the money himself and arrived in the capital on 18 July 1827. There he made a sketch of [[Charles John Kean]], the actor, which, like his portrait of Scott, was lithographed and published, making the artist a considerable sum. He entered the [[Royal Academy]] schools in 1828, eventually being awarded the highest prizes open to students.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}