Eclectic Images: Recent Acquisitions 2011-2016

This exhibition presents highlights of prints and drawings acquired by the Gallery over the last five years. The exhibition is laid out in two parts. The first shows a selection of some 60 prints and illustrated books from the Brian Lalor Collection. As a whole, the collection functions as a time-line charting developments in printmaking through the centuries from the early reproductive prints of Maerten van Heemskerk (1498-1574) to Christopher Le Brun’s (b.1951) mysterious Four Riders series of etchings. Other notable sub-groups include: the portrait in print; early twentieth-century printmaking; Biblical Palestine; and works inspired by Whistler. The second part of the display includes some of the most beautiful and unusual watercolours, drawings and prints acquired by purchase or gift since 2011, featuring drawings by Fernand Lèger, Walter Osborne and Kyffin Williams, as well as prints by Berthe Morisot, Frank Brangwyn and Micheal Farrell.
Curator: Anne Hodge, Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Ireland