Living Lavishly

Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square

I tend to think of myself as being a cultured girl; I am decently traveled, I like classical music and literature, I can appreciate some art. This morning I finally got to the National Gallery, which I had planned to go to last week but was not able to due to my foot. At 9:30 I strode through the gallery doors just as the museum opened to beat the crowds as there is nothing worse than a crowded museum. As the museum is being refurbished for its 150^th anniversary (1864-2014) a few of the galleries are closed, but the two that I saw—the European masters and the Irish masters—were very good. Unfortunately we are not allowed to take pictures of the art, but I can say that the artwork was beautiful. They had paintings from the 15^th century to the 20^th, and works from artists such as Picasso, Vermeer, and Monet, along with a host of others. They even had a collection on loan from Russborough, which if you remember, is the estate I saw in County Wicklow. After being broken into four times by art thieves, the most valuable art was put in the National Gallery for safe keeping. I will admit that I prefer more classical painting to the modern masters (I did not really like the Monet and Picasso that they had), but I still enjoyed my museum experience. The weather promised rain later, so I decided to enjoy the dry weather by stopping at the Queen of Tarts for a kettle of tea and a gluten free macaroon. 

The National Gallery of Ireland

The Picasso that I did not particularly like, though I do appreciate the talent that took to create it.

A painting by a Jan Steen called the Village School, created in 1665.

Giovanni Paulo Panini's Landscape with the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine, created in 1740 and a part of the Russborough Revisited Collection.

After taking a break to write an essay—I am here for academic purposes—and waiting for the rain to pass, I went to a museum that my friends and I had been looking for yesterday. Speaking of yesterday, my friends Julie, Camella, and I had a picnic at Trinity College and then walked around Dublin on Friday. We also bought tickets to seen Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream performed at Dublin castle; which should be fabulous. We had been enjoying the heat wave and looking for 29 Georgian House, which is an old house that is decorated to  show what a house would have looked like in the late 18^th century Dublin, and next to Merrion Square which was private gardens until the 1970s. We looked it up and today Julie, Alyssa, and I went to it. It was really cool (no pictures allowed), and reminded me a lot of Downton Abbey on a smaller scale. The servants unfortunate life in the basement and the beautifully decorated rooms of the main house where the wealthy Beatty family lived for twelve years. We took the guided tour and our tour guides told us about all four floors and about what life would have been like back then. It was very interesting and gave an interesting look into the lives of Dublin aristocracy. 

Twenty-Nine Georgian House. You enter through the basement and make your way from the kitchens to the children's nursery on the fourth floor. 

The dining room where they would have 25 courses when guests were over and would indulge in delicacies such as jello. The first two floors were the most used and therefore the most extravagant, with carpet and wallpaper.

The front and back drawing rooms. Not called such because drawing took place there but because you were withdrawing from dinner. The front room was for walking and talking, the backroom for cards, music, drinking, and socialization.

The governess' bedroom. Her important job was to raise and teach the children. Their ability to get a job depended on the family's standing; if any scandal touched the family while she was there, she name was ruined. She occupied rooms at the top of the house next to the nursery, less opulent then the lower rooms.