Festivals and Films

Turner: A Light in the Darkness

From 31 Dec 2011 to 30 Jan 2012

1-31 January. The National Gallery of Ireland holds its annual tribute to the groundbreaking English landscape artist Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) whose oils and watercolours are seen as the Romantic preface to Impressionism.

The exhibition features the 31 watercolours from the Vaughan Bequest, many of which were painted during Turner's European travels. In January 1900 Henry Vaughan bequeathed the precious works to the gallery which has displayed them to the public every January since.

Due to their fragile nature, the watercolours can not be seen at any other time of the year. The exhibition is complimented by a display of silhouettes and miniatures from the Mary A. McNeill Bequest which features works by John Comerford, Richard Crosse, Henry Bone and Nathaniel Hone the Elder.

A programme of talks on the theme "Turner and Romantic Nature" accompanies the exhibition: for more details see gallery website.