Irish Art History and Sitemap

The history of Irish art starts around 3200 BC with Neolithic stone carvings at the Newgrange megalithic tomb, part of the Brú na Bóinne complex which still stands today, County Meath.

In early-Bronze Age Ireland there is evidence of Beaker culture and a widespread metalworking.

Trade-links with Britain and Northern Europe introduced La Tène culture and Celtic art to Ireland by about 300 BC, but while these styles later changed or disappeared under the Roman subjugation, Ireland was left alone to develop Celtic designs: notably Celtic crosses, spiral designs, and the intricate interlaced patterns of Celtic knotwork.

Phoebe Anna Traquair | Arts and Crafts Movement painter

Vincenzo Cardarelli | I gabbiani / Seagulls

Non so dove i gabbiani abbiano il nido,

ove trovino pace.

Io son come loro

in perpetuo volo.

La vita la sfioro

com'essi l'acqua ad acciuffare il cibo.

Jimmy Lawlor, 1967 | Surrealist painter

Jack B. Yeats, l'Espressionista moderno

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) è stato un pittore Irlandese.

Jack Butler Yeats nacque il 29 agosto 1871 a Londra, figlio del ritrattista irlandese John Butler Yeats (1839-1922) e fratello del poeta William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).

Passò gli anni dell'infanzia a Sligo, una città sul mare nel nord dell'Irlanda, dai nonni materni.

Paul Henry R.H.A. | Post-Impressionist painter

Born in Belfast, Paul Henry (11 April 1877 - 24 August 1958) was for much of the 20th century, one of the country’s most identifiable artists, with prints of his paintings of the west of Ireland popularised by railway companies in the 1920s and Bord Fáilte in the 1940s.

In 1898 he went to Paris studying under Jean-Paul Laurens, with Constance Gore-Booth a fellow student.

Oscar Wilde | Se non avessimo amato / Ay! had we never loved

Se noi non avessimo amato,

Chi sa se quel narciso avrebbe attratto l'ape

Nel suo grembo dorato,

Se quella pianta di rose avrebbe ornato

Di lampade rosse i suoi rami!

Caspar David Friedrich | Ruins of the Oybin, 1835 | Hermitage Museum

William B. Yeats | Quando sarai vecchia / When you are old

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) è stato un poeta, drammaturgo e scrittore Irlandese, nonché una delle figure più importanti della letteratura del XX secolo.

Fu una forza trainante dietro l'Irish Literary Revival ed, insieme a Lady Gregory, fondò l'Abbey Theatre, di cui fu il direttore durante i primi anni.

Gli fu conferito il premio Nobel per la Letteratura nel 1923 ed in seguito ricoprì due mandati come senatore dello Stato libero d'Irlanda.

Quando tu sarai vecchia, tentennante

tra fuoco e veglia prendi questo libro,

leggilo senza fretta e sogna la dolcezza

dei tuoi occhi d’un tempo e le loro ombre.

Vincent van Gogh | A Pair of Lovers (Eglogue en Provence), 18888 | Sotheby's

Oscar Wilde | Flower of Love

Sweet, I blame you not, for mine the fault was, had I not been made of common clay

I had climbed the higher heights unclimbed yet, seen the fuller air, the larger day.

From the wildness of my wasted passion I had struck a better, clearer song,

Lit some lighter light of freer freedom, battled with some Hydra-headed wrong.

Had my lips been smitten into music by the kisses that but made them bleed,

You had walked with Bice and the angels on that verdant and enamelled meed.

Paul Cadmus

Jack Butler Yeats RHA | Expressionist painter

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (29 August 1871 - 28 March 1957) was an Irish artist and Olympic medalist. W. B. Yeats was his brother.

Butler's early style was that of an illustrator; he only began to work regularly in oils in 1906.

His early pictures are simple lyrical depictions of landscapes and figures, predominantly from the west of Ireland - especially of his boyhood home of Sligo.

Yeats's work contains elements of Romanticism.

He later would adopt the style of Expressionism.