GRACEFUL interiors and Ireland’s lost treasures is the focus of an exhibition of watercolours and drawings by Jeremy Williams at Matthews Auction Rooms, Capel St., Dublin until April 28. Entitled The Knight’s Dream it focuses on the last great cause of the late Knight of Glin, Desmond Fitzgerald, the the reinstatement of Russborough House as the ultimate Irish Palladian synthesis of architecture, sculpture, painting and landscaping. There is work relating to other restoration projects undertaken by the Irish Georgian Society including reception rooms in Dublin, staircases, exteriors, rustic retreats, restoration and re-creation.
The Knight’s intended reinstatement of the seven principal interiors of Russborough was based on the visit by John Preston Neale in 1825. Neale included Russborough in his 1827 volume of his guide to country houses of Great Britain and Ireland, in which he briefly catalogued the collection, room by room. This inventory coupled with c1860 internal photographs allowed Aidan O’Boyle to reconstruct the original picture hang of the Milltown collection at Russborough published in an edition of Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies in 2011.
The artwork by Jeremy Williams on the left is the Music Room at Russborough looking north east.