Alive alive O!
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I went to see this new exhibition in the National Gallery about Dublin street life in the 18th & 19th centuries today. It is exquisite.
Carried out in typical Ntl Gallery restraint & elegance, it portrays both the characters and architecture of the capital during its ‘glory years’ as the Empire’s second city.
Seeing Malton’s Views of Dublin & bizarre looking engravings by Joseph Tudor of early College Green in full size is wonderful, not to mention Roques Maps and countless pencil sketches of buildings & people that made up the city.
The exhibition also tells of how & why the likes of Malton & other artists exaggerated or idealised the city’s buildings and views, as well as the people in the images.
You really must go & see this exhibition if you have even the slightest interest in Dublin, its not large by any means, but so interesting & reavealing.
The exhibition space is stunning, very dark and muted, little starlights illuminating the images etc.
Fantastic.
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I must second Graham’s sentiments. The exhibition is wonderful. Due in great part to the care that was taken in making what is a nice small selection.
Pity they didn’t print up a few prints or even postcards as I’d love a copy of the beggar playing the clarinet!
One thing that struck me was how sterile Sackville street looked in some of the prints. The architecture (early Georgian?) looked slightly soul-less. It led me to wonder what this discussion board would have looked like back then.
I’d love to see a follow up exhibition on maps of Dublin. -
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Or maybe how beautiful a city the people of the time lived in?
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Yeah maybe… although I think most of these drawings and paintings of the period are quite stylized. The O’Connell St one definately is… in fact it might be viewed as an easrly sales pitch by the Gardiner Estate to sell Sackville Street.
The picture of College Green as viewed through the portico of Parlaiment House is definatley idealised as the commentary points out.
I am sure that the Dublin Civic Museum much have many such drawings…. its a pity they dont make a permanent exhitition.. although they are pushed for space and resources at their current site. Its a bit of a fusty old institution much in need of a revamp.
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finally saw this following the recommendations above and loved it, i was espessially pleased to see a map showing east wall, where i live, when the grid was still intact and before they had a church on church road, pity they didn’y call it dogtrack road, maybe we’d have a dogtrack here now.
the other really stricking thing was that people in the past used to carry stuff on their heads, when did we stop and why?
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