George Bernard Shaw’s gift to the National Gallery dramatically increased its buying power; Peter Somerville-Large recalls its investment by subsequent directors
The birth of George Bernard Shaw one hundred and fifty years ago and the opening of the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) largely coincided. As a boy, Shaw ‘haunted’ the largely deserted gallery, ‘the cherished asylum of my boyhood’, seeking to learn about art, and hoping to become an artist. Throughout his life he retained a profound interest in art and never forgot his debt to the NGI
Nicola Gordon Bowe discusses Harry Clarke’s exquisitely detailed interpretation of Synge’s Queens, an ode to history’s most memorable female characters
