Turner & Place: Landscapes in Light and Detail

A watercolour by J.M.W. Turner showing purple storm clouds at the mouth of the Grand Canal in Venice and a gondola in the foreground.
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), Storm at the Mouth of the Grand Canal, Venice, c.1840. Image National Gallery of IrelandCredit

1–31 January 2022 
Print Gallery | Admission free – no booking required

In January, visit the annual Turner exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland. In 1900, the Gallery received a bequest of 31 watercolours and drawings by J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) from the English collector Henry Vaughan. Vaughan stipulated in his will that the watercolours be exhibited every year, free of charge, for the month of January, when the light is at its weakest. Since 1901, the Gallery has displayed the watercolours for the first month of the year. 

In 2022, this exquisite collection of light-filled watercolours by Turner is shown alongside a group of topographical drawings by the English artist Francis Place (1647–1728), who visited Ireland in the summer of 1698. Place’s detailed views – offering a rare glimpse of seventeenth-century Ireland – are the earliest known depictions of Drogheda, Dublin, Kilkenny, and Waterford in the national collection. 

Curator: Niamh MacNally

Virtual exhibition

For the month of January, a virtual exhibition was available for those who were unable to visit the Gallery in person.

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