Membership: Your support makes a difference

Our Friends make a valuable contribution to the Gallery's efforts in acquisitions that enrich the national collection, display world-class exhibitions, and promote awareness and appreciation of the visual arts. Your support plays a vital role in helping the Gallery continue to provide an exceptional cultural experience for all visitors. Thank you for your generosity!  

Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland is dedicated to promoting education and research into the world of art, as well as supporting the Gallery with exhibitions, conservation projects, acquisitions and publications. Our mission is to connect people with art and to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of our inspiring national collection. 

Exhibitions

2024: Vermeer Visits. This is an unprecedented opportunity to unite two works by Johannes Vermeer - The Frick Collection’s Mistress and Maid with the National Gallery of Ireland’s Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid. While the Frick’s period home is under renovation, Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid will make an exceptional trip to Dublin.

2023: Pastel Revealed. The national collection contains many exquisite pastel artworks. This exhibition, which held over 50 pieces, explored the medium of pastel and how it changed over the centuries.

2019: Bauhaus 100: The Print Portfolios. The Bauhaus is viewed as the most influential educational establishment in architecture, art and design. This exhibition featured a diverse range of print techniques in the styles of Abstraction, Futurism and Expressionism.  

2018: Curious Creatures: Frans Post and Brazil. Frans Post spent seven years drawing the flora and fauna of Brazil during its Dutch colonised period. Complementing the drawings were depictions of Brazilian landscape artworks within the national collection.

Conservation

2023: With the help of the Friends Fund, the conservation team worked hard to conserve The Holy Family, c.1500 by Bonifacio de Pitati (1487-1553). The project revealed a new artist and hidden elements within the artwork. The painting is currently on display in the Grand Gallery.  

2022: A state-of-the-art Leica microscope was purchased for the new Conservation Science Lab, assisting the team with many further research and conservation projects. 

Acquisitions

2018: John Lavery, Her First Communion, 1902. Although Lavery achieved great success in mainland Europe &and North America, it was this portrait of his daughter Eileen which afforded him recognition in Ireland and Britain. The soft colours and delicate brushstrokes create a sense of tranquility and reverence. 

2017: Anne Yeats, Crayfish, 20th century. Anne Yeats was a third generation artist within the Yeats family. A prominent Irish painter and set designer, Yeats was best known for her paintings inspired by nature, which often featured landscapes and animals. Using lithography techniques for Crayfish, she scored the support first before applying the vibrant blue and yellow paints.

Both these artworks were displayed in the exhibition New Perspectives. Acquisitions 2011–2020. The exhibition celebrated recent additions to the national collection, including paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture.  

Research and Publications

Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland sponsored exhibition companion books for the following exhibitions: 

• 2021: Jack B. Yeats: Painting & Memory
• 2018: Making their Mark: Irish Painter-Etchers & the Etching Revival
• 2017: Margaret Clarke: An Independent Spirit 

Contact us

• By email: [email protected]
• By phone: +353 (0) 1 661 9877 
• In person: Visit us at the Membership Desk in the Gallery’s Millennium Wing (opposite the Gallery Shop). The desk is open Monday–Saturday during Gallery opening hours (except bank holidays).