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LEINSTER 23
men's masterpieces. There also can be seen an
interesting gallery of portraits by a painter, bred and
trained in Dublin, who, although still young, is reckoned
among the greater names of British art— Mr. William
Orpen. The portraits are not all examples of his
best work, but they are strongly characterized studies
of contemporary men and women widely known in
Ireland and outside Ireland. Another artist is repre-
sented there too, but not at his best: for an adequate
example of the work of Walter Osborne, whose un-
timely death robbed Ireland of more than she could
afford to lose, it is necessary to visit the National
Gallery of Ireland—on all accounts, indeed, well worth
visiting. But this one picture of a tree-bordered
meadow, with cattle grazing quietly in the sun-dappled
shade, and beyond it the whitewashed front and blue
slate roof of a long shed, renders a subject so charac-
teristic of Ireland, so characteristic above all of
Leinster, in its exquisite colour, its sense of large
air, its leisurely charm, that no one can look at it
without there stealing into his heart that beauty of
Ireland, which is not scenic, which has no striking
features, and yet which is the most intimate, the
homeliest, and perhaps the loveliest of all.