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Ireland's Favourite Painting is Announced
Over the past five weeks RTÉ ran a public vote to find out the nation’s favourite painting. ‘Hellelil and Hildebrand, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs’ was found to be Ireland’s most loved piece with one in five of those who voted choosing the romantic 19th century painting. The picture was painted by Frederic William Burton from Corofin, Co Clare and hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.
The water colour painting depicts the ill-fated lovers Hellelil and Hildebrand, meeting on the stone stairway of a medieval tower. The National Gallery of Ireland describes the story behind the painting:
“The princess and her bodyguard had fallen in love but her father regarded the young soldier as an unsuitable match for his daughter and ordered his sons to kill him. The painting captures the couple’s poignant final embrace. Burton was inspired by the story of the ill-fated lovers told in an old Danish ballad. The poem had been translated into English in 1855 by Whitley Stokes, a lawyer and philologist, and friend of the artist.”
President Michael D. Higgins had this to say about the winning painting…
I think the winning piece is a very considerable and beautiful painting. The achievement in the medium is extraordinary in terms of the materials – the beautiful tones, the lovely colours, and the richness of them, the detail and the range. It’s an extraordinarily detailed and very beautiful picture. The drama of the painting is in the movement of the bodies. I see a kind of sensuality in this painting. I don’t think it is only sentimental. I think there is a sense in the painting itself that one is on the verge of something that isn’t temporary but that it is more in the mode of the tragedy that will unfold. I think the painting itself would stand anyway, even without the power of the narrative. It’s a great achievement: it must be one of the greatest achievements for a child of Corofin, Co. Clare!
The full length image painting, featured below, shows the lovers embracing.
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