The National Gallery Of Ireland ~ A Cultural Gem In The Emerald Isle ~ The Best of the Best On View

Written by Marilyn Vetter Monday, 15 August 2011 21:39

In June 1852 William Dargan, the father of the Irish rail network, approached the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) with an offer to underwrite a spectacular exhibition on Leinster Lawn in Dublin, the home of the RDS since 1815. He wished to imitate the great exhibition that had taken place at Crystal Palace in London the previous year. Just eleven months later, on the 12th May, the exhibition was opened in an astonishing series of pavilions for which the architect, John Benson, received a knighthood. The enthusiastic response of the visiting crowds demonstrated an active interest for art as well the desire for the establishment of a permanent public collection that would also be a fitting tribute to the generosity of Dargan. Following the success of the exhibition a special committee was established to promote the establishment of a National Gallery in Dublin. In November 1853 the Irish Institution reported that it had considered four possible sites for the location of a Gallery including one adjacent to Leinster Lawn. The next ten years saw active campaigning for the funding of the new Gallery building which was designed by Francis Fowke. Meanwhile the Irish Institution, continued under the direction of George Mulvany to hold loan exhibitions until 1860 when it was disbanded. On Saturday, the 30th of January 1864, the Earl of Carlisle officially opened the National Gallery of Ireland to the public. The collection comprised just one hundred and twelve pictures, including thirty nine purchased in Rome in 1856 and thirty which were on loan from the National Gallery in London and elsewhere. In 1866 an annual purchase grant of £1000 was allocated for the acquisition of pictures and the institution would thrive over the years through purchases, bequests and donations. In 1901 the Countess of Milltown gifted over 200 pictures to the gallery from her house at Russborough as well as a collection of silver, furniture and books from her library. The gift was so substantial that a new extension was constructed to accommodate it. This would be only one of a number of bequests and gifts that the National Gallery of Ireland would receive and which have contributed to the quality of the collections housed there today. In 1968 the gallery was extended again with designs by Frank DuBerry, senior architect with the Office of Public Works. This new extension is today named the Beit Wing in acknowledgement of the exceptional generosity of Sir Alfred and Lady Beit who gifted seventeen outstanding old master pictures to the institution in 1987. Some six years later in 1993 the Gallery became the focus of international attention when Caravaggio's, ‘The Taking of Christ’, a painting recorded in contemporary biographies on the artist and known through copies but long believed to be lost or destroyed, was discovered in a Jesuit house of studies in Dublin. The picture remains in the gallery on indefinite loan from the Jesuit fathers. The most recent addition to the Gallery complex was the Millennium Wing opened in January 2002. Designed by London based architects Benson & Forsyth and located on sites purchased by the Gallery in 1990 and 1996, the new wing introduced a new, second public entrance to the gallery from the busy thoroughfare of Clare Street in Dublin. Currently the Gallery is refurbishing the Dargan and Milltown wings to better accommodate the nearly 1 million visitors who pass through every year. Visit the museum’s website at … http://www.nationalgallery.ie

The National Gallery houses some 16,000 paintings, sculptures, works on paper and objets d’art dating from the early thirteenth century through to the mid-twentieth century. The collection boasts an impressive range of masterpieces by artists from the major European schools of art whilst also featuring the world's most comprehensive collection of Irish art. Two whole rooms in the National Gallery of Ireland are dedicated to the paintings of Jack Butler Yeats, brother to the great poet W. B. Yeats. Other Irish artists within the collection include, James Barry, Augustus Nicholas Burke, Nathaniel Hone the Elder, Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Francis Danby, Daniel Maclise, Sarah Purser, Roderic O'Conor, Walter Osborne, John Lavery, Paul Henry, William John Leech, Sean Keating, Mainie Jellett, Gerard Dillon and Louis le Brocquy. The Centre for the Study of Irish Art (CSIA), within the National gallery supports and promotes the study of Irish art and associated disciplines. Its library and archive collection documents the country's rich artistic legacy from early celtic art to the present. It is an essential resource for anyone interested in the visual arts in Ireland. The holdings include a library of publications on Irish art, enriched by a rare book collection and illustrated book collection featuring work by Irish artists such as Rose Barton, Harry Clarke, Louis le Brocquy and William Scott. The collection of works by British and American artists includes, William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, J M W Turner, Henry Raeburn, George Romney, John Singer Sargent, Stanley Royle, Francis Wheatley and Andrew Festing.

The European art collection includes masterpieces from Spain (including works by Luis de Morales, Jusepe de Ribera, Diego Velázquez, Francisco Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Pablo Ruiz Picasso and Juan Gris), France (Jacques Yverni, Nicolas Poussin, Jean Lamaire, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, Paul Signac, Kees van Dongen and Edgar Degas), Italy (Fra Angelico, Zarobi Strozzi, Filippino Lippi, Titian, Giovan Battista Moroni, Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Domenichino, Guercino, Sassoferrato, Luca Giordano, Carlo Maratta, Francesco Solimena and Canaletto), Germany and Holland (Georg Pencz, Angelica Kauffmann, Emil Nolde, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, Anthony van Dyck, Gerrit van Honthorst, Rembrandt, Willem Cornelisz Duyster, Aelbert Cuyp, Matthias Stomer, Rembrandt, Willem Drost, Anthonie de Lorme, Gabriel Metsu, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Steen, Johannes Vermeer and Cornelis Troost). The Prints and Drawings Study Room provides access to the Gallery's collection of prints, drawings, watercolors and miniatures from the sixteenth century to the present day. It is open to all members of the public, students and visiting scholars for the study and appreciation of the collection... Because of the current refurbishment work, there are currently no temporary exhibitions showing at the National Gallery of Ireland. However, works from the National Gallery are currently touring in the “Gabriel Metsu: Rediscovered Master Of The Dutch Golden Age” and can be seen on display in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam until 21 March 2011 before moving on to the National Gallery of Art, Washington on 17 April 2011.