This handsome and scholarly book is a catalogue of a selection of pictures of Ireland, all, remarkably, collected over the past 30 years by Desmond Fitzgerald, 29th Knight of Glin, for his famous country seat in west Limerick, where his family have held sway since 1350. It whets the appetite for the next major publication by the Knight (with James Peill), a history of Irish furniture.
Forty years ago, when the Knight first made his scholarly mark as a collaborator with Desmond Guinness and others on the pioneering exhibition ‘Irish Houses and Landscapes’, Ireland was an economic and cultural backwater. Today, as 250,000 people annually up sticks to escape the horrors of London, civilised and prosperous Ireland is of course acclaimed one of the most desirable places on earth.
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The Knight has been a considerable force in the renaissance, which accounts for this tribute on behalf of 16 of his peers, the cream of Irish academe. The breadth of knowledge exemplified by these experts indicates the collection’s scope. Inevitably, when architecture is the dominant subject, attention centres on the Protestant Ascendancy; but urban scenes, landscapes, gardens, cottages, ruins and interiors encompass art, architecture, sociology and local history; and a similar breadth informs the choice of artists, which ranges from the 18th century to the present and includes the often charming views by amateurs, anonymous or otherwise.
It is interesting to see so many women painters and, sign of the times, to find the majority of the specialist contributors are women. Two of the finest historic artists are Susanna Drury (1733-76), with two views (one spectacular) of the Giant’s Causeway; and the water-colourist Mildred Anne Butler (1858-1941); while Lindy Guinness helps fly the contemporary feminine flag with a dashing gouache in pinks and duck-egg green of ‘The Music Room, Clandeboy’, her home in County Down.
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