Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design 1690-1840

A sweeping survey of the arts of Ireland spanning 150 years and an astonishing range of artists and media

This groundbreaking book captures a period in Ireland’s history when countless foreign architects, artisans, and artists worked side by side with their native counterparts. Nearly all of the works within this remarkable volume--many of them never published before--have been drawn from North American collections. This catalogue accompanies the first exhibition to celebrate the Irish as artists, collectors, and patrons over 150 years of Ireland’s sometimes turbulent history.

Featuring the work of a wide range of artists--known and unknown--and a diverse array of media, the catalogue also includes an impressive assembly of essays by a pre-eminent group of international experts working on the art and cultural history of Ireland. Major essays discuss the subjects of the Irish landscape and tourism, Irish country houses, and Dublin’s role as a center of culture and commerce. Also included are numerous shorter essays covering a full spectrum of topics and artworks, including bookbinding, ceramics, furniture, glass, mezzotints, miniatures, musical instruments, pastels, silver, and textiles.

Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago

Exhibition Schedule:

The Art Institute of Chicago
(03/17/15-06/07/15)

William Laffan is an art historian and author, and former editor of Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies: The Journal of the Irish Georgian Society. Christopher Monkhouse is the chair and Eloise W. Martin Curator, Department of European Decorative Arts, at the Art Institute of Chicago.