09/11/2026
The Gallery will be closed from tomorrow, Tuesday 10 November until Thursday 12 November inclusive to facilitate events linked to Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
While we are closed, we are sharing some of the more recent additions to our collection online, including this painting of Central Park by Irish artist Sir John Lavery. Like many before and after him, Lavery was struck by the energy and beauty of New York. He painted this view from the Plaza Hotel, where he stayed during the winter of 1925-26. At the time there was an anthracite coal strike and Lavery recalled that ‘soft coal had to be used with all its attendant smoke and dirt - but the haze that this brought over the city softened the outlines of the skyscrapers into a new beauty. It gave a truly Turneresque effect and reminded one of Whistler’s remark about the poor Thames warehouses becoming palaces at night.’
Image: John Lavery (1856-1941), Central Park, New York, Evening, 1926
