Irish Landscape Painters: The Artists Who Painted Ireland

Irish landscape painters are the artists who taught Ireland what its own country looks like — the wet light over Wicklow, the long flat strands of north County Dublin, the storm coming in over a Mayo lake. This guide is artist-led: eight painters, from the eighteenth century to now, what each one saw, and where to find their work here.

For a tour by place rather than by painter, read Irish Landscape Art: From the Burren to Connemara. What follows is the people.

George Barret — the Dargle and Powerscourt

Born in the Liberties of Dublin around 1730, Barret found his subject in the wooded glens of Wicklow, and above all on the Powerscourt estate — he is closely tied to Edward Wingfield, Viscount Powerscourt, and painted the house, the waterfall and the Dargle again and again. He left for London in the 1760s and, in 1768, was among the founding members of the Royal Academy — an Irish landscape painter at the birth of the English art establishment. See the George Barret prints.

Thomas Sautelle Roberts — Ireland in aquatint

A Waterford man who trained first as an architect, Roberts brought a draughtsman's clarity to the castles, rivers and harbour mouths of Munster. Between 1795 and 1799 he issued twelve aquatints of Irish views — Blarney, Lismore, the city of Cork, the entrance to Waterford Harbour — and in 1823 he was among the first members of the new Royal Hibernian Academy. Start with his Blarney Castle of 1796, or see the Thomas Sautelle Roberts prints.

James Arthur O'Connor — the Romantic storm

O'Connor (1792–1841) is the painter of weather. In 1813 he left Dublin for London with Francis Danby and George Petrie, and he spent the rest of his life between the two countries, painting Mayo lakes, Wicklow glens and, late on, skies that seem about to break. A Thunderstorm: The Frightened Wagoner and The Poachers, his great moonlit scene, both belong to the National Gallery of Ireland. More on his own page: James Arthur O'Connor.

Edwin Hayes — Dublin Bay from the water

Born in Bristol in 1819 and raised in Dublin, Hayes served as a seaman on a ship bound for America, and it shows — his sea moves, and his boats sit in it properly. His An Emigrant Ship, Dublin Bay, Sunset (1853) is in the National Gallery of Ireland. Browse the Edwin Hayes prints.

Nathaniel Hone the Younger — sky over the strand

Hone (1831–1917) began as a railway engineer, gave it up for painting in Paris, and spent years at Barbizon among the French painters of open country. Back in Ireland he farmed in north County Dublin and painted the coast around Malahide — low horizons, big clouds, cattle and sand. After his death his widow gave the National Gallery of Ireland more than five hundred of his oil paintings. See the Nathaniel Hone the Younger collection.

Mildred Anne Butler and Paul Henry — the garden and the west

Two very different painters either side of 1900. Mildred Anne Butler worked in watercolour at Kilmurry, her family home near Thomastown, County Kilkenny — gardens, rooftops, rooks and evening light; the Mildred Anne Butler prints gather her quieter Ireland. Paul Henry, born in Belfast in 1876, went to Achill in 1910 and stayed until 1919, and the western cottages, turf stacks and heaped clouds he painted there became the picture of the west that his railway posters later made familiar. His work is not in our catalogue, but he belongs in any list of Irish landscape painters.

BÓM — the landscape painted now

The tradition carries on. The house artist BÓM paints the Glens of Antrim, Fair Head and the lakes of Connemara in strong, flat colour — the same places the older painters walked, seen with a contemporary eye. See the BÓM collection.

Choosing an Irish landscape painting for your wall

Match the painter to the room. Barret and Roberts suit a hall or dining room — ordered, calm, eighteenth-century. O'Connor wants a study or a snug where his dark skies can hold the wall. Hone and Hayes open up a bright living room with sea and air. BÓM brings colour to a modern space. Every print is open edition, on archival matte paper, framed or unframed. Start with the Irish landscape and seascape prints, or browse all Irish art prints.