Chester Beatty Papers
Part of the Institutional Archive
Description
Material relates to the donation and loan of items to the National Gallery of Ireland by Alfred Chester Beatty and the management by NGI of the collection of works donated to the State by Chester Beatty. Early material deals with receipt of the Alfred Chester Beatty donation of ninety three paintings from the Barbizon school to the Irish state, and the organisation of an accompanying National Gallery of Ireland exhibition and catalogue in 1950. Some of the pictures were subsequently loaned to other galleries and public bodies throughout Ireland - this material includes correspondence between NGI directors and the Department of the Taoiseach as to how to manage these loans. Included is a hardback ledger with record of loans to provincial galleries and Irish institutions from the Alfred Chester Beatty collection during the period 1952 to 1970. There are several letters from Alfred Chester Beatty in the 1950s and 1960s to Thomas MacGreevy, director of the National Gallery of Ireland, about donations, arrangements for the loan of Impressionist pictures and his ambitions for the arts in Ireland. Other correspondence deals with the Impressionist paintings, from the collection of his wife Edith (d.1952) which Beatty loaned to NGI. In 1959 Alfred Chester Beatty considers the question of the use of the Shaw Fund for a planned extension to the gallery. In the 1960s (under the directorship of James White) correspondence with government departments and other interested bodies continued on the subject of indemnities for the Alfred Chester Beatty works on loan. In 1976 the Alfred Chester Beatty collection is entrusted to the 'care and custody' of the National Gallery of Ireland following representations from the director. The 1985 papers contain correspondence with doctor Brian Kennedy about his forthcoming book on Alfred Chester Beatty and there is also a newspaper cutting of an article by Kennedy.
Title | Chester Beatty Papers |
---|---|
Date | 1949-1985 |
Type | Collection |
Ref | IE NGI/INST/2/2 |
Level | Series |
Language | English |
Extent | 1 box |
Archive view
IE NGI/INST/2/2 This record