Glenn Family Gift, 2017

Collection of 102 original scraperboards, one watercolour, and two exhibition poster designs by the Belfast-born illustrator William St. John Glenn. Glenn created illustrations of the fictional Irish village Ballyscunnion for over thirty years which were published in the Dublin Opinion from 1937 to 1969. In 1970, they were exhibited in the Irish Club, Eaton Square, London. Charles E. Kelly, editor of the Dublin Opinion, suggested on the occasion that the collection should find a home in the National Gallery in Dublin, noting: “I am sure the like of this will not be seen again”. Glenn was a founding member of the Royal Ulster Academy in the early 1930s.