Janette Stokes explores the Stokes family connection with FW Burton’s The Meeting on the Turret Stairs from its inspiration to bequest
The watercolour, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs by the Irish artist Frederic William Burton (1816-1900), is one of the best known and best loved works in the National Gallery of Ireland (Fig 1). The subject was inspired by a traditional Danish ballad, translated in 1855 by the lawyer and philologist, Whitley Stokes (1830-1909) and the painting was bequeathed to the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) in 1900 by his sister, the archaeologist and art historian, Margaret Stokes (1832-1900)
