For those lucky enough to travel, this autumn sees a number of exhibitions in some of the world’s capital cities, showing the art of great painters.

Five hundred years after his death, Leonardo da Vinci still enthrals and the Louvre in Paris will be showing his work from October 2019 to February 2020. Rembrandt and Velazquez combine for an exhibition, which will include other artists, at the unmissable Rijk Museum in Amsterdam from next month until early January.

You don’t need to take a flight to see some of the world’s greatest artists, and many of them for free

Picasso will be centre-stage when the Museum of Modern Art in New York showcases its expanded exhibition spaces from the end of next month, while closer to home, in Vienna, there is the intriguing coming together of the paintings of Caravaggio and the works of the sculptor Bernini and that show, from mid-October to mid-January next, will be at the Kunsthisorisches Museum.

However, you don’t need to take a flight to see some of the world’s greatest artists, and many of them for free. The National Gallery of Ireland is surely one of Ireland’s and Dublin’s greatest spaces, and it is a venue that grows in popularity. This is a place to visit when you have an hour or a day, and you can easily fill any amount of time.

While most of the content is free to see, the gallery also stages special exhibitions and currently on show, just until 3 November, is titled Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light.

Sorolla’s reputation declined after his death and for many decades he was largely forgotten

Though his name might not be familiar, he was at the height of his fame a century ago and in the first decade of the 20th century had major exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, London and New York.

Sorolla died in 1923 at the age of 60, having enjoyed being feted and even described as “the world’s greatest living painter”. He was up there with the likes of Goya and Picasso, but while they continued to enjoy popularity, Sorolla’s reputation declined after his death and for many decades he was largely forgotten.

Thirty years ago, New York welcomed Sorolla again with open arms and his name started to become known again.

Thankfully, his reputation is again on an upward trajectory and this year his work has been on show in London, and now the National Gallery of Ireland is staging a major retrospective exhibition, a first for Europe.

Some 52 paintings comprise the current exhibition and the content represents a broad spectrum of subjects and themes. As he grew older, his work seemed to be brighter and sunnier, and indeed is reflected in the fact that the current show is titled Master of Light.

Sewing The Sail.

One of the more stunning pieces is The White Boat, Javea, painted in 1905, while the detail in Sewing The Sail, painted in 1896, is spellbinding.

Tickets for the Sorolla exhibition range in price from €5 (students) to €15 (adults). They are excellent value and this is a show to gladden your heart.

About the National Gallery of Ireland

In June 1852 William Dargan, the father of the Irish rail network, approached the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) with an offer to underwrite a spectacular exhibition on Leinster Lawn in Dublin, the home of the RDS since 1815. He wished to imitate the great exhibition that had taken place at Crystal Palace in London the previous year. Just 11 months later the exhibition was opened.

The enthusiastic response of the visitors demonstrated an active interest in art as well as the desire for the establishment of a permanent public collection. A special Dargan committee was established as well as a committee called the Irish Institution to promote the establishment of a National Gallery in Dublin.

The next decade or so saw active campaigning for the funding of the new gallery, which had as a condition that its exterior design would replicate that of its neighbour, the Natural History Museum.

In 1901 the Countess of Milltown gifted over 200 pictures to the gallery from her house

On 30 January 1864 the Earl of Carlisle officially opened the National Gallery of Ireland to the public. The collection comprised just 112 pictures, including 31 purchased in Rome in 1856 and 30 which were on loan from the National Gallery London and elsewhere.

In 1866, an annual purchase grant of £1,000 was allocated for the acquisition of pictures and in 1901 the Countess of Milltown gifted over 200 pictures to the gallery from her house at Russborough. The gift was so substantial that a new extension was constructed to accommodate it. In 1968 the gallery was extended again and is today named the Beit Wing in acknowledgement of the exceptional generosity of Sir Alfred and Lady Beit who gifted 17 outstanding old-master pictures to the institution in 1987.

The first addition to the gallery complex in the 21st century was the Millennium Wing

Some six years later, in 1993, the gallery became the focus of international attention when Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ was discovered in a Jesuit house of studies in Dublin. The picture remains in the gallery on indefinite loan.

The first addition to the gallery complex in the 21st century was the Millennium Wing which opened in 2002. Located on sites purchased by the gallery in 1990 and 1996, the new wing introduced a new, second public entrance from Clare Street.

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