Sir Martin Archer Shee (23 December 1769 – 13 August 1850) was an Irish painter and writer. He specialised in portrait painting. He enjoyed success during the Regency era. From 1830 he served as the president of the Royal Academy in succession to Thomas Lawrence.
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Early life
He was born in Dublin, of an old Irish Roman Catholic family, the son of Martin Shee, a merchant, who regarded the profession of a painter as an unsuitable occupation for a descendant of the Shees. His son Martin nevertheless studied art in the Royal Dublin Society and came to London. There, in 1788, he was introduced by Edmund Burke to Joshua Reynolds, on whose advice he studied in the schools of the Royal Academy of Arts.