Silly Old Twit

                  This  large heavy book is volume one of a three volume set , volumes 2 and 3 as yet unpublished which are to make up a catalogue of the entire collection of Irish paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland. Running to over 400 pages much of the information contained in this volume has never be published before. With full scale illustrations on almost every second page this is an impressive book and an absolute must have for anyone with an interest in Irish art or any art for that matter. Quite apart from it’s very real value as a guide to Irish art the works shown here give a great insight into the social , political and cultural life of Ireland in the 18th. century.

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             At 70 euros in hard back it is excellent value. It may be purchased directly from the gallery or from any good book dealer. Hopefully they will make this available on a computer disc ’though the gallery has not been very foward looking in this manner in the past. Only one video featuring Irish paintings in the gallery has ever been released but this was some years ago and it has not been released on DVD which is a great pity as it is really very good.

                       
                        The Piping Boy   by John Camillus Hone. 1769. (the artists son).
    I spent about two years looking at this book in my local book store before buying it the other day. The reason I was hesitant in purchasing it is that as much as 50% of the painting included here have no merit. They seem to have been included simple because they are Irish. Many of the portraits included are not the sort of thing you would want on your wall as the persons portrayed are for the most part not unlike the sort of person that you will see on the streets of any Irish city now.  In fact I have to almost force myself to look at them. A nasty vain vacuous breed the lot of them. If you wanted to prove that the Irish were an inferior race then you might well use some of the images in this book as they really are a gallery of throwbacks. This is an excellent book in spite of everything but it’s not a great advert for Irish art nor does it show the Irish as a very attractive race.