National Gallery of Ireland
Leading Art Museum in Dublin: Collection Highlights, Exhibitions, Opening Hours.

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Connemara Girl, by Irish Artist
Augustus Nicholas Burke.

TOP PRICED FINE ART
For a list of the Top 10 works
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Most Expensive Irish Paintings.

National Gallery of Ireland

Located in the centre of Dublin, the National Gallery of Ireland (Ghailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) holds the state collection of Irish and European art, including paintings, drawings and sculpture. Founded in 1854, following the Great Industrial Exhibition, the Gallery houses more than 14,000 artworks, including an extensive collection of Irish painting, a wide range of Old Master paintings (14th century-present) notably from the Italian Baroque and Dutch/Flemish schools, as well as a collection of Turner watercolours, European and Irish drawings, miniatures, prints and Irish sculpture.

Among its 2,500 oil paintings are European works by Velázquez, Goya, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Titian, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Rembrandt, Rubens, van Dyck, Monet and Picasso.

Among its collection of Irish paintings are works by James Barry, Augustus Nicholas Burke, Gerard Dillon, Paul Henry, Nathaniel Hone the Elder, Mainie Jellett, Sean Keating, John Lavery, Louis le Brocquy, William John Leech, Daniel Maclise, Roderic O'Conor, Walter Osborne, Sarah Purser and Jack B. Yeats, as well as several other Irish painters and sculptors.

Le Petit Dejeuner, by Irish
Portraitist Sarah Purser.

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Over the years, the National Gallery of Ireland has benefited from numerous valuable bequests and art donations, including those from the Dowager Countess of Milltown (contents of Russborough House), Henry Vaughan (watercolours by the English painter J.M.W. Turner), Hugh Lane, George Bernard Shaw, Chester Beatty, the Sweeney bequest (inc. paintings by Picasso and Jack B. Yeats), Alfred Beit (pictures by Velázquez, Murillo, Steen, Vermeer and Raeburn), and Anne Yeats (drawings and sketchbooks by her uncle Jack B. Yeats).

Gallery Admission and Services

Admission to the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Ireland is free, although donations are welcome. Free public tours occur on Saturdays (3pm) and Sundays (2pm,3pm,4pm), and free guided tours for visually and hearing impaired visitors may be booked by writing three weeks in advance.

Free public lectures are held on Tuesdays (10.30am) and Sundays (3pm). In addition, gallery curators are available to appraise paintings, prints and drawings brought into the Gallery 10-noon by members of the public on the first Thursday of each month, except August and January.

As part of the Gallery's extensive library and research services, data collections comprising art material relating to the development of both Irish and international visual arts from the middle ages onwards are viewable by appointment to all researchers, Monday to Friday 10am-5pm.

For more information, including details of opening times, please contact:
National Gallery of Ireland
Merrion Square West
Dublin 2
Telephone: 01-661-5133
Website: www.nationalgallery.ie

More Details About The Top Irish Art Galleries

For reviews of the best museums of arts in Ireland, see:
- National Museum of Ireland
- Irish Museum of Modern Art
- Hugh Lane Gallery Dublin
- Chester Beatty Library
- National Self-Portrait Collection
- The Hunt Museum (Limerick)

• For details of other Leinster fine art exhibitions and collections, see: Irish Art Galleries and Museums.
• See also: History of Irish Art.
• For details of the world's finest museums, see: Homepage.
• For more about venues like the National Gallery of Ireland, see: Irish Art Guide.