Graham Norton’s latest co-stars? Monet and Goya
WANDERING the magnificent, refurbished wings of the National Gallery of Ireland, I came faceto-face with Graham Norton. Not on a couch, but on the wall. The portrait of the TV talk-show host shares these illustrious rooms with works by Goya, Titian, Rembrandt and Van Gogh. By the artist Gareth Reid, it is one of the latest acquisitions by the gallery, which reopened this year following a six-year makeover.
The work rounds off a remarkable collection of art which starts with an anonymous painting of St George and the Dragon from about 1400.
Fiery dragons’ breath could have come in handy when this damp-ridden edifice was last open in 2011.
In the heart of Dublin’s gracious old Georgian centre, the fabric of the building was in a sorry state with your eye as likely to be drawn to the rainwater dripping into buckets from leaks in the roof as to the paintings on the walls.
Not that this nation ever needs an excuse to celebrate but, behind the new entrance in the Dargan Wing’s immaculately conserved classical portico, it has genuine cause to rejoice.
I admit to seeing Ireland’s cultural achievement mainly in terms of ‘the word’ – spoken, written and sung. From James Joyce and Oscar Wilde, whose statue reclines languorously in Merrion Square just across the road, to Seamus Heaney and Bono. But I never realised it was so rich in art.
Now that this great gallery has been restored, so many fine works can once again be displayed as they deserve to be. The National Gallery was one of Europe’s earliest public art galleries. It opened in the heart of the city in 1864 and rates as one of the best in the category, just below the undoubted world leaders – the Louvre, London’s National Gallery and Madrid’s Prado.
That is remarkable for a country of just four-and-a-half million people.
I took a random route through the restored rooms in search of Bruegel, Monet, Vermeer and Turner.
Many are now lit again with natural daylight, after long- covered windows were reopened and a century’s grime was removed.
Fittingly, the gallery has the best collection of Irish art anywhere. It includes such joyful outdoor works as The Liffey Swim by Jack B. Yeats, and the nation’s favourite painting, The Meeting On The Turret Stairs. Frederick Burton’s study of tragic lovers was chosen in a recent vote. It’s in a delicate condition, so they display it only for a few hours each week.
There is one measure I always apply to a gallery visit, after the paintings. How good is the cafe? At the National, they have enlisted Domini and Peaches Kemp, celebrated Irish culinary sisters, to brew up.
I’m won over by the wide choice of teas, and this irresistible line – ‘cakes made by our chefs’.
But, best of all, in a world where there is a price on most things, apart from the views, the founders of the National Gallery guaranteed free entry, by law, for ever.