Source: Irish Art Digital Archive & Library

Source is the National Gallery of Ireland’s online catalogue, offering worldwide access to our unique archival and special collections. Through Source, we provide a virtual space for people to discover, connect and engage with our collections. We continue to expand our digital records on Source on an ongoing basis, providing an invaluable resource for students, art professionals, academics and members of the public. There are thousands of records with associated images available for re-use and can be downloaded for research and educational purposes. The platform also hosts Source Stories, a curated selection of research blog posts spotlighting historic events, intriguing relationships and under-researched artists from within the collection.

Collections:

Irish Art Archive

The Irish Art Archive, held in the Centre for the Study of Irish Art, is searchable for the first time through Source. This collection holds an important and rich body of material documenting the history of Irish art. Celebrated artists such as Daniel Maclise, Frederick William Burton, Sarah Purser, Roderic O’Conor and William Orpen, to name only a few, are all represented in the collection.

Yeats Archive

The catalogue of the Yeats Archive is searchable through Source featuring over 13,0000 records. The Archive holds material relating to Jack B. Yeats and members of his extended family, including and the artist's sketchbooks, his library, original manuscripts and photographs, as well as publications from the Cuala and Dun Emer Presses.

Sir Denis Mahon Archive

The art historian and collector Sir Denis Mahon (1910 – 2011) gifted his library and archive to the Gallery in 2010. The archive is a record of Mahon’s long and remarkable life spanning the 20th century.  Catalogue records related to a selection of his research activities are available to browse on Source, as well as his scans of his photographic files. 

Institutional Archive

The official minutes of the Board of the National Gallery of Ireland are available to browse through Source. The minutes track the tenures of the Gallery's former Directors, along with important decisions that were made in regards to developing the collections which shaped the Gallery as we know it today. The National Gallery of Ireland (the Gallery) is grateful to the Heritage Council for its generous support for the project to catalogue, digitise and publish the Minute Books of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1855 – 1970.

Source Stories

Source Stories is a collection of curated stories, written by people with different interests in the field of art history. The stories offer new and unique insight into items from the collections, highlighting interesting events and relationships in the lives of those who have contributed to the development of art in Ireland.