The Lord Who Liked Prison 2 (Original)

Artist: Paul Rainer
Medium: Watercolour on Board
Size: 12" x 13" (310mm x 325mm)
Date: 1969
Code: RainerMassereene2

This is the unique original Watercolour painting by Paul Rainer.

Massereene laughed in the Governor's face. "If you shoot me, you will have to pay my debts." In 1779 Lord Massereene was a foot-loose and fancy free aristocrat enjoying life in Paris. With an income of 100,000 francs a year he could afford an opulent lifestyle. However in less than six months he had spent 376,732 francs and debtors prison beckoned.

His personal fortune back in Ireland meant he could "buy" better lodgings within the prison and even entertain with a choice wine cellar. Although tricked into trying to escape and being sent into the hideous underground section of the prison, Massereene was soon back in his comfortable quarters.

10 years later the French Revolution began . He was persuaded by fellow prisoners to lead them to escape, which is when the Governor threatened to shoot him and where our quote originates. No idle boast - it was the law - and so the prisoners marched out of prison and eventually Massereene sailed from Calais back to Ireland.

From Look and Learn #386 7 June 1969.

• Artist Biography
  Paul Rainer (Flourished 1950s and 1960s)
  Paul Rainer, an illustrator about whom not much is known. We know he was active in the 1950s in Everybody's Magazine, and in the 1960s contributed to both Bible Story and Look and Learn.
  
  He illustrated a couple of series in Look and Learn including 'People and Plants' in 1966, the excellent 'Who Said...?' in 1967 and various others in 1968-69. Before that, he was one of the regular illustrators for Bible Story, illustrating 'The Story of the Life of Jesus' (1964).