Press Release 4 November 2009

Irish Version

The National Gallery of Ireland is pleased to announce that the recently recovered painting by Jack Yeats, 'Bachelor's Walk, in Memory' (1915), has been placed on long-term loan to the Gallery. The painting is now on view alongside the Gallery's permanent display of works by the artist in the Yeats Museum. Admission is free.

'Bachelor's Walk, in Memory' has not been seen in public since the National Gallery's centenary exhibition of the artist's works in 1971. It was also the cover image of the 1971 exhibition catalogue. The painting was stolen from Dunsany Castle, Co. Meath, in 1990 and recovered in London in 2007 after it was spotted in a Sotheby's promotional publication.

Raymond Keaveney, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland thanked the owner for placing the painting on loan at the Gallery: "We are delighted to accept this important painting on loan which affords a rare and wonderful opportunity for our visitors to see one of the artist's earliest and most significant oils displayed alongside the Gallery's prestigious collection of Yeats paintings."

NOTE ON THE PAINTING

'Bachelor's Walk, in Memory' , (1915)
The painting records the aftermath of an incident involving a detachment of the King's Own Scottish Borderers that took place in Dublin city centre on 26 July 1914. The soldiers were returning to barracks having intercepted a large party of Irish Volunteers transporting a supply of arms collected at Howth. Responding with panic to a hostile reception in Dublin from the large crowd, sections of which jeered and stoned them, the soldiers opened fire, killing four people and injuring over thirty. While Yeats did not witness the event, he visited the scene of the incident the following day, executing a sketch on the spot. The shooting incident evidently played on his mind, as the following year he produced both this oil painting and a print on the subject.

The painting is on view in the Yeats Museum of the National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square West, Dublin 2.
Gallery Hours: Monday - Saturday 9.30am-5.30pm; Thursday 9.30am-8.30pm; Sunday 12pm-5.30pm. Closed 24-26 December & Good Friday.

Admission to the Gallery is free.

Press & Communications Office
National Gallery of Ireland
Telephone (01) 661 5133
Email: press@ngi.ie