Painting Ireland: Topographical Views from Glin Castle William Laffan (ed) Churchill House Press, Tralee, 2006 Designed by Vermillion pp 269 fully illustrated h/b €45.00 ISBN 0-9550246-1-7 Andrew Bonar Law Painting Ireland: Topographical Views from Glin Castle is an illustrated record of many of the paintings and watercolours collected by Desmond FitzGerald, the Knight of Glin. With nearly 200 colour illustrations in large quarto format the reader at first glance might be forgiven for thinking that it was just one more contribution to the ever-growing plethora of Irish ‘coffee table’ books. Nothing could be further from the truth. Edited, one might almost say compiled, by William Laffan, the book is essentially a collection of well-researched essays on the majority of the paintings; essays that deal not only with the topographical feature illustrated, but also with the artist and with attributions where there is doubt. These essays or commentaries are provided by fifteen contributors whose qualifications are outlined towards the end of the book. The reader is taken on a tour of the country starting in Munster and then progressing to Leinster via Connaught and a short trip into Ulster. William Laffan explains that the geographical spread is uneven. This is partly due to the Knight’s own preferences, but is also a reflection of the popularity and therefore commissions in given areas. The other determining factor would be the location of the ascendancy houses great and small. As the introduction points out, the marketing by Messrs Windsor and Newton of the travelling boxed sets of watercolours and paper pads not only gave greater scope to the talented female artist, it greatly increased the number and extent of what could be termed lesser views, lesser in that they probably would not have attracted the attention of the more accomplished professional, but still of topographical importance even though the subject was a lowly thatched mud cottage or a view from a drawing room window. These pads were not only used in recording views in the vicinity of the home, they were also taken to record often fairly extensive trips throughout the country. The standard of the works varies enormously but it was not simply a question of the accomplished professional and the naive amateur. In fact the amateur, less constrained by artistic balance, often produced a better topographical representation of the subject. I have a few small criticisms relating to presentation. Captions should be as near to their picture as possible. I found it tiresome to have to search for them. In this book they are always there, but usually at the top or bottom of a facing page, as far away from the picture as possible. When reading the commentaries I prefer to know authorship before, or as, I read. It was a nuisance to have to turn pages to find at the end of the article the initials of the author and one wonders why initials, why not the name? One remembers after a while that PH stands for Peter Harbison and AH for Ann Hodges and so on. I also feel it is pity that while the illustrations are numbered, there are no corresponding numbers for the descriptions. The Knight has been shrewd in his acquisitions and has amassed a fine collection, particularly paintings by the Brocas family and Turner de Lond. It is one that has steered well clear of the Irish contemporary art scene. Unlike many who have jumped lemming-like into the contemporary art market, the Knight is able to sleep untroubled by visions of the exposé of the King’s new clothes. Long may his impeccable taste be an example to us all! For those who are unable to visit Glin, forty-two pictures from the Knight’s collection are on display at the Irish Architectural Archive, 45 Merrion Square, Dublin until the first week in April. Andrew Bonar Law has recently published The Topographical Prints and Maps of Dublin, Neptune, 2005.