DUBLIN.- This exhibition presents highlights of prints and drawings acquired by the National Gallery of Ireland over the last five years 2011 to 2016.

A generous donation of over 160 single sheet prints, including a number of portfolios and illustrated books received from Brian Lalor in 2014 underlines how the national collection continues to benefit from the generosity of private donors. Conceived as a study collection, these printed images were assembled by Lalor over a forty year period. The collection is eclectic and reflects Lalor’s fascination with prints of all kinds, particularly those in black and white. Prints by twentieth-century British artist, Dame Laura Knight, a cartoon on x-rays pulled from a popular nineteenth-century French journal, and a delicate seventeenth-century etching by Claude Lorrain, sit side by side. The group of prints of Biblical Palestine relate to a period in the 1970s when Lalor worked in Jerusalem as an archaeologist.

The first part of this exhibition shows some 60 prints and illustrated books selected from the Brian Lalor Collection including early reproductive prints of Maerten van Heemskerk (1498-1574) and two etchings from Christopher Le Brun’s (b.1951) mysterious Four Riders series. Themes such as the portrait in print and early twentieth-century printmaking are explored.

The second part of the display includes some of the most beautiful and unusual watercolours, drawings and prints acquired by the Gallery through purchase or gift since 2011. It features drawings by Fernand Lèger, Walter Osborne and Kyffin Williams, as well as prints by Berthe Morisot, Frank Brangwyn and Micheal Farrell.

A free illustrated booklet, edited by Anne Hodge, Curator of Prints and Drawings, is available from the Gallery Shop. A programme of free talks will take place in September, commencing with a talk by Brian Lalor on Sunday 4 September at 3pm: ‘All that was ever writ in brass’: The Brian Lalor Collection.

Brian Lalor is a Cork born writer, printmaker and collector. As a printmaker he works principally in etching, woodcut and mezzotint and his work has been widely exhibited. He was chairman of Graphic Studio Dublin (2005-2008) and his history of the Studio, Ink-Stained Hands, was published by The Lilliput Press in 2011. His publications cover a wide range of themes including art history, architecture, travel and autobiography.