Unique 1600’s views of Drogheda join Turner Watercolours in National Gallery

Turner & Place: Landscapes in Light and Detail opens 1 January 2022

Topographical drawings by Francis Place (1647–1728), including several views of Drogheda in the 1600’s, are to feature alongside the annual exhibition of exquisite Turner watercolours, which opens onsite and online at the National Gallery of Ireland on January 1^st .

The year 2022 is the 50^th anniversary of the Gallery’s acquisition of Place’s works and they are being put on display in full for the first time since 1972 – which include early views of Drogheda – depictions of Bullock Castle, County Dublin, Ruins and a Bridge at Drogheda, and The Sunday Port Barbican, Drogheda Town Wall – as well as scenes from Dublin, Kilkenny, Kildare and Waterford. A virtual exhibition will be available online for visitors who would like to explore the show from home.

Place’s views are the earliest known depictions of Drogheda, Dublin, Kilkenny, and Waterford within the national collection. This fine collection of early drawings, offering a glimpse of late seventeenth-century Ireland, was purchased exactly 50 years ago through the Gallery’s Shaw Fund.

The January 2022 display provides the Gallery with an opportunity to highlight these two important collections of works on paper, both of which came into the Gallery by way of generous benefaction.   It is the first time since 1972 that the rare Place drawings will be displayed to the public as a group. 

Niamh MacNally, curator of the exhibition, commented: ”The jewel-like colours and experimental effects in Turner’s luminous watercolours are captivating, while the precise detailing in Place’s prospects, encourages close inspection, with the aim of identifying what has changed, or indeed stayed the same, over time. Turner’s atmospheric watercolours can envelop the viewer, whereas Place’s carefully observed landscape studies contribute significantly to the topographical history of the cities and towns he depicted in the final years of the seventeenth century.” 

In 1900, the National Gallery of Ireland received a bequest of 31 watercolours and drawings by J. M. W. Turner from the English collector Henry Vaughan (1809–99). Vaughan stipulated in his will that the watercolours be exhibited every year, free of charge, for the month of January, when the light is at its weakest. Since 1901, the Gallery has displayed the watercolours for the month of January, thereby upholding the conditions of his bequest. January 2022 marks 121 years since the Turner watercolours were first exhibited at the Gallery.  

Turner & Place: Landscapes in Light and Detail is on view 1-31 January 2022. The exhibition showcases the work of two prominent English artists, working centuries apart, who viewed the landscape at first hand, albeit with radically different results. The exhibition also highlights the importance of two key benefactors (Vaughan and Shaw), both of whom made lasting contributions to the Gallery. 

A programme of online learning events to complement the exhibition will include a free curator’s talk, an Irish language conversation event, a talk by Dr Helen Pierce, art historian on the work of Francis Place, and a series of online painting classes with artist Niall Naessens. 

Find out more at www.nationalgallery.ie.