17 June 2015
In a recent article in the Telegraph, Claire Wrathall described the art gracing the walls of the elegant Merrion Hotel in Dublin as, ‘one of the most important privately owned collections of Irish art.’ [Telegraph, 10 June 2015 www.telegraph.co.uk]. Befitting the quality of the pieces (none would look put of place in a museum) the Merrion has commissioned an audio guide to provide the viewer with further information about some of the works on display. Or, if you would prefer a more personal approach, the hotel can arrange a tour of the collection with a guide from the National Gallery of Ireland (conveniently located only a few moments down the road).
The Merrion has long been amassing its impressive collection of 19th and 20th century paintings which includes work by artists such as Jack B. Yeats, Louis Le Brocquy, Sir John Lavery and Martin Mooney, as well as several by our own William Scott.
A painting by Scott from 1950 (above) has, for some time, been intimately connected with the daily life of the hotel. A still life with napkin, lemons and eggs, in 1998 it fittingly graced the cover of the menu in the hotel’s Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud (Ireland’s only Two Star Michelin restaurant).
Then, in 2010, when the hotel introduced its Art Afternoon Tea [www.merrionhotel.com], the painting was one of the first works from the collection to be playfully – and inventively – translated into an edible delight; a vanilla biscuit filled with orange curd, the shape of which mimics the tabletop.
The Merrion Hotel
Upper Merrion Street
Dublin 2
Ireland
