The National Gallery of Ireland was founded by an Act of Parliament in 1854 and opened to the public in 1864. It is home to over 16,300 works of art, complemented by the National Portrait Collection, as well as research facilities dedicated to the study of Irish art.

The collection ranges in date from the fourteenth century to the present day comprising paintings, sculpture and works on paper spanning the history of Western European art, from Renaissance masters Fra Angelico and Paolo Uccello to Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso. The Gallery’s most prominent holdings relate to the Irish collection with works by Nathaniel Hone, Thomas Roberts, Daniel Maclise, Roderic O’Conor, William Orpen, John Lavery, Louis le Brocquy, among others. Particularly popular are the works of William Leech, Paul Henry and Jack B. Yeats, whose extensive archive is housed at the Gallery.

More recently the Gallery has significantly enhanced its research facilities with the opening of the Sir Denis Mahon Reading Room. The permanent collection is free to the public and the Gallery welcomes large numbers of Irish and overseas visitors each year. Four wings of the Gallery, built between 1864 and 2002, accommodate a growing collection. As part of the Master Development Plan (MDP) a major refurbishment project of the Dargan and Milltown wings on Merrion Square was completed in 2017. An additional wing to the Gallery is planned for the future. This final phase will conclude a decade-long process of essential improvement and modernisation for staff and visitors alike.