George Victor Du Noyer’s legacy as an artist has yet to be fully appreciated, writes Peter Murray, ahead of the Crawford Art Gallery exhibition to mark the artist’s bicentenary.
Although the essential facts of George Victor Du Noyer’s life are well known, as an artist he is still often overlookedin conventional accounts of 19th century Irish art. This may be because Du Noyer’s interests were so wide-ranging, extending from botany and zoology to geology, and from archaeology to antiquarian and historical studies. It might also relate to the fact that the majority of his watercolours and drawings are preserved in bound volumes, in libraries and archives, rather than in art museums. An exhibition held at the National Gallery of Ireland in 1995, curated by Fionnuala Croke, revived interest in Du Noyer and over the ensuing decades, much good work has been done, particularly by the Royal Society of Antiquaries in Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy, to enable wider access to the thousands of drawings and sketches he made over the course of his lifetime. The rediscovery of Du Noyer’s contribution to Irish art is also due, in no small part to the researches and writings of Petra Coffey of the Geological Survey of Ireland, and Peter Harbison of the Royal Irish Academy.
To the Irish in America, the irony of using funds from a Fenian club to buy a set of Malton views depicting Georgian Dublin was not apparent, writes Christian Dupont
Linda Brunker’s female avatars affirm nature and spirit. Mark Ewart talks to the Irish sculptor as she departs California for France
The magic realism of Sweeney’s transformation from man to bird continues Gabhann Dunne’s association with the natural world, writes Susan Campbell