This large heavy book is volume one of a three volume set , volumes 2 and 3 as yet unpublished which are to make up a catalogue of the entire collection of Irish paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland.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.
a
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.
Apollo Gallery Dublin Art and Business Ethics
May 13, 2007
Some time ago I decided to sell a picture I owned to someone I knew. They gave me a small deposit and to make a long story short that was the last I saw of it. Until that is I saw it in the window of The Apollo Gallery in Dawson Street in Dublin. I went in to the gallery and explained that a couple of week previously it had been on my wall and asked who gave it to them. I further identified the picture by telling them what was written on the reverse. The picture was a pencil portrait of General Owen O’Duffy by the irish artist Sean Keating. I left the shop within perhaps a minute and was not in any way argumentative but just mentioned the above facts.
It was in their window for quite a long while with a price tag of several thousand euros but just recently it has gone from there so I assume they have sold it. As you can imagine I am not very happy about any of this. The picture had been in my possession for many years before it was stolen ( and in spite of the circumstances it was actually stolen) and I was hoping they would just return it but I heard nothing from them since that one day I went into their gallery shop.
The normal ethical thing for the shop to have done would have been to simply return it. Let me explain. Very few people have any proof that an item which was stolen from them was ever in fact their property. And even if they had a receipt this does not prove anything as of course they may have sold the item at some point. So if you have something stolen from you you cannot actually prove that it has been stolen in the first place. But if it has been robbed by a common criminal then that person has to satisfy the police that it is his and if he does not or can not explain where he got it from then he can be charged and you can have your property returned. So far it’s simple. But what if your property is either sold to an auction room , art gallery or second hand shop either directly or indirectly.
Such businesses may or may not have receipts but most important they have a legal reason to have , let say in the case of an art gallery shop, x number of paintings at any given time. So if you find something that was stolen from you turn up in a shop window you are in a very vulnerable position. Thousands of items of stolen property are sold in these kind of place and while they may do all they can to check that these items are legally obtained there is a limit to what they can do. And as I said very often you cannot prove that the item was yours in the first place.
The solution to this is quite simple. A reputable shop or business will just return the property. You might think that this leaves these people open to being fleeced big time but this is not so. The reality is that most people are honest. But there are of course the ‘con’ men but usually these people will have been involved in this kind of thing or some kind of criminal activity before so it’s quite easy to check this out. As for those who might not be known to the police suffice to say that it is not too difficult to figure out who you are dealing with once you are so to speak on your guard. In my case for instance this gallery could have asked the police who I was and they would very soon have reported back that at sixty years of age I had no criminal record and was quite well known in the secondhand business and had been selling and buying works of art for years with no complaint from anyone. And then they could just have returned my property. It must be noted here that all business of this sort budget for this as there ultimatly is no way to avoid buying or selling something that was not legally yours to sell in the first place. This then is the actual reality of how this kind of thing is dealt with on a day to day basis by reputable businesses. But of course a business does not have to do this. It can , and some do , just shrug it’s shoulders and say nothing and put the money in their pocket in the knowledge that there is after all nothing you can do about it.
In the case of my picture I was able as I have said to say what was written on the reverse inside the frame. Also I could explain where I had got it as it had been purchased from a well know reputable Dublin auction firm and there would have been a record of the sale.
What all this means is that if you have a picture stolen or taken illegally from you and it turns up in The Apollo Gallery then it’s just your bad luck as there is no chance that they will do as any reputable business would do and return it. And keep in mind that very few thieves steal for their own personal use but do so in order to sell the item on and every or just about every work of art that gets stolen is sold on the open market soon after.
I have no reason to believe that The Apollo Gallery deal in stolen property and have not implied , nor do I wish to imply that they do in any way. But I do say and say it openly, that their general ethic leaves much to be desired. Theft is a legal concept but honorable people are prepared to go beyond this and where possible do the right thing. The alternative to this is to say , “I have not broken the law so it’s just your hard luck”. Most people thankfully do not take this attitude.
It’s 12:30 and I’m sitting in the cafeteria of the National Gallery of Ireland. It’s a medium size room with plenty of natural light. And it’s busier than you would think. The gallery itself is perhaps twenty minutes walk from my flat. I have been here many times , sometimes several times a week over quite a few years but this is the first time I find myself in the cafeteria. I don’t like it , it’s noisy and a little too full and I have just now spilt my tea all over the table. It’s the tea pot , not me that’s at fault , it’s one of those that looks nice but isn’t practical. I’m dying for a nice hot cup but I’m afraid to even try pouring another one.
There are families here. Men with their wives and children , young men , the sort who bring their kids to the local gallery. You know the sort. You can tell their politics at a glance.
I had the idea that I would come here and write my blog. I figured that the atmosphere would be conductive to good writing but I was wrong. It’s much , much too noisy. There is a drone of what passes for conversation all around me. The proletariat are noticeable by their absence and in their place…. As a very dear and departed friend of mine would say…
”Wallpaper , wallpaper . It’s all just wallpaper”.
They could be anyone , characterless , interchangeable types that you pass on the street every day. They are one short step away from their working class roots and have mastered the art of amnesia. Their children are healthy and will attend good schools. They are better educated than their fathers and mothers or so they think. They believe in multiculturalism even if they are not quite sure what that means. They are ‘inclusive’ in outlook. They are part of the mainstream. It’s was an easy transition.
…wallpaper , wallpaper.
This is all a bit too familiar. It’s reminds me of those images on tv . The cafeteria , the faces , the background noise and then the gun shots and cups falling to the floor. I can understand how these things happen. “The jungle is never far away”.
There’s a book shop here and they have a small volume ,’ erotic sketches by Kokoschka and I’m tempted. Edith Piaf is gently moaning in the background and I’m still dying for a cup of tea. Outside the bookshop I stand facing the cafeteria. It’s full now and they are having dinner. Dinner!. Dinner! They obviously came here to eat. They will mention this visit to the galley in casual conversation.
As you enter the gallery the bookshop is on the left , the cafeteria to the right. There is a flight of stairs up ahead and at the top of these you walk through three large rooms , hung of course with paintings. In the far left corner of the last room , almost hidden and hung in what’s almost a recess is a small painting. To see the detail you need to get right up close like a man who is shortsighted. It’s Fra Angelico’s ” The attempted martyrdom of Saints Comos and Damien”. It was acquired for the gallery in 1886 and is part of a set the rest of which are scattered about in galleries throughout the world. The artist died in 1455 but it looks as if it might have been painted just a few years ago. If we didn’t know better we might think it’s the work of a child.
It’s my favourite picture in the entire collection but I could not for the life of me explain why. There is something naive in it. It’s almost cartoon like. Five hundred year old and the colour is as fresh as it was when first painted. This is what keeps bringing me back to this gallery. There is no need for a lesson in art appreciation here , all we need are our eyes.
I will walk home by the Grand Canal. Then I will look through my art books and relive the day.
The Earl of Guilford
August 28, 2006
This is a portrait of the Fifth Earl of Guilford by Hugh Douglas Hamilton.
He moved to London from Dublin in 1764 or 5. In these early years he was
quite famous for the small oval portraits as seen above . The one reproduced
here is of The Rose Family (?) 1775.
“The Watercolours of Ireland 1600-1914″ by Anne Crookshank and the
Knight of Glin. Barrie Jenkins 1994.
I have no particular reason for this post except that I spend a couple
of nights a week leafing through my art books and I like this picture.
On Sundays I usually go to the National Gallery of Ireland which is
a short walk from where I live. The one thing that is worth thinking
about if you find yourself in such a place is that you could own one of
those works of art….art , paintings that is , are a lot cheaper than
many people realise. Prices for lesser known painting by even famous
artists are really cheap…..£1,000 or less will get you a decent one.
And it will give you a lifetimes pleasure.
I took a stroll down to the National Gallery today.
I go there once or twice a week as it is only a twenty minute
walk from where I live but I never fail to be amazed at how poor
some of the pictures look in comparison to how they are
presented in the catalogue. The above is one of the gems of
the collection in the gallery and to be quite honest it looks a
lot better in this reproduction than it does in real life. It’s a lot
smaller than you would expect it to be and is rather dull and
even bland. But it’s not just this one painting, there is a canvas
by Caravaggio ” The taking of Christ” which was discovered
recently in a church here in Dublin, which you imagine to
be gigantic but isn’t. Walking around the gallery one is
constantly struck by the mediocrity of many of the works.
And you can’t smoke. Now most people would say “so what”
but if your like me and a smoker then it’s a bit of a drag
not to be able to sit down and have a smoke while viewing
the pictures.
I rarely bother looking into the room where 20th century
Irish art is displayed as my favorite artist, Michael Kane
is not on display there…’plenty of Yeats who I am not at all
impressed with. There is however a piece by Mainie Jellett
one of whose gouaches I am lucky enough to own.
Still, it’s an agreeable way to spend the afternoon and it does
not cost anything and as you walk down to it you pass through
terraces of Georgian house for which Dublin is renowned.
But there is little ‘great art’ to be found and what is there is
a collection of ‘all the old regulars’ which makes for a dull
and unimaginative collection. But I think the real killer is
that there are no chances being taken here, it’s conservative
in the worse sense.
Howard Knee . An Irish Artist Revisited
March 31, 2006
When I was young and growing up in the fifties in Dublin I was not aware of art as such. My parents were ‘respectable’ working class and we always had books in the house. My father was old Fianna Fail and there were a lot of Irish books most of which he never actually read and at Christmas time the only cards I saw were by Brian O’ Higgins. We had no paintings that I can recall apart that is from a view of Dublin harbor by Howard Knee. This was hung in what was called the parlor. The parlor being the front room, the best room, revered for visitors and special occasions was permanently cold and no one in the family ever used . was a rather bland water colour and I neither liked or disliked it, it was just ‘there’ and part of the furniture. A few years age when my parents died I sold it along with some bits and pieces from the house. I have never missed it and have not been tempted to buy a Howard Knee since
