• Was an Irish portrait painter.
• He was born in Dublin, of an old Irish Roman Catholic family, the son of Martin Shee.
• 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.
• In 1789, he exhibited his first two pictures, the "Head of an Old Man" and "Portrait of a Gentleman."
• He was chosen an associate of the Royal Academy in 1798.
• In 1789, he married Mary, eldest daughter of James Power of Youghal, and in 1800 he was elected a Royal Academician.
• He moved to
George Romney's former house at 32 Cavendish Square, and set up as his successor.
• In addition to his portraits he executed various subjects and historical works, such as Lavinia, Belisarius, his diploma picture "Prospero and Miranda", and the "Daughter of Jephthah".
• In 1805 he published a poem consisting of Rhymes on Art, and a second part followed in 1809.
• Shee published another small volume of verse in 1814, entitled The Commemoration of
Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other Poems, but this was less successful.
