Private Tours
If you would like to organise a private tour in Ireland or abroad of any art collection or exhibition please email me, jessfahyarthistory@gmail.com
New tours Summer 2026
William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy Exhibition Tour
Image: William Blake (English, 1757-1827), The Temptation and Fall of Eve (Illustration to Milton’s Paradise Lost), 1808, pen and watercolour on paper, 49.7 x 38.7 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Join me for a tour of this exciting exhibition of artworks by the fascinating writer and artist William Blake. His imagination and rebellion knew no bounds making him an endlessly interesting character and creator. There will be many weird and wonderful works on display from the Tate collection by Blake and his contemporaries as well as comparable works by Irish artists. As always I will put the artists and artworks into context and will happily be giving my particular take too!
The tour will be approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes, portable stools are available.
Fee: €45 includes the ticket price click on your preferred time to book
Please note refunds are not possible but you may give your place to a friend if you cannot make it.
**NEW** If you would like to book a tour of the exhibition for just you and your friends at a particular date and time, please email me. The fee including tickets for up to 8 people is €400 in total.
Georgian Art Tour
Image: Angelica Kauffman(Swiss, 1741-1807), The Ely Family, 1771, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Ireland.
In between my tours of the Blake exhibition (see above) I will run an hour tour of Georgian art in the National Gallery Collection to provide more context and explore the era fully along with some great 18th century art gossip! From feuds to fashions and everything in between.
The artworks will be from the same time as Blakes career or just before. This will include William Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds, Angelica Kauffman,James Barry and many more.
Fee: €25 includes the ticket price click on your preferred time to book
Please note refunds are not possible but you may give your place to a friend if you cannot make it.
Past tours
Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone. The Art of Friendship
Image: Mainie Jellett (Irish, 1897-1944), The Virgin of Eire, 1940s, oil on Canvas, 64 x 92 cm, National Gallery of Ireland
Description: In 1923, Mary Harriet “Mainie” Jellett (Dublin, 1897 – 1944) exhibited two cubist paintings at the Dublin Painters’ Exhibition. The response was hostile, with the Irish Times publishing a photograph of one of the paintings and quoting their art critic as saying of them ‘to me they presented an insoluble puzzle’ and ‘freak pictures’. AE (George Russell) described Jellett as “a late victim to Cubism in some sub-section of this malaria”. The following year, Jellett and Evie Hone (Dublin, 1894 – 1955) had their first joint exhibition, just over a hundred years later a joint retrospective of these groundbreaking artists is currently being held at the National Gallery of Ireland entitled Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone. The Art of Friendship. This large exhibition of around 90 works in various mediums including oil, watercolour and stained glass demonstrates the versatility of both artists while illustrating their similarities and differences.
An Artist’s Presence
Image: Nick Miller, PH Hand, drawing. © Nick Miller. Photo, National Gallery of Ireland.
Description: An Artist’s Presence explores how artists, consciously or unconsciously, have placed themselves in their work through drawings and paintings from the Gallery’s permanent collection. Spanning the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, it includes works of art by artists as diverse as William Orpen, Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, James Barry, Flora Mitchell, Seán Keating and Nancy Lee Katz. Featuring self-portraits, depictions of artists in the act of making, and works that emphasise the stylistic signature of their creator, this exhibition offers a fascinating insight into the artistic process. This exhibition invites visitors to consider the relationship between the artist, their art, their presence, and the viewer.
Art as Agency
Image: Patricia Hurl (b.1943), Flight, 1989, Oil on canvas, 186 x 125 cm, IMMA Collection, © the artist
Description: Join me on a tour through time as we explore the IMMA Collection: Art as Agency. This impressive exhibition is a major three-year display celebrating IMMA’s Permanent Collection as a source of agency and knowledge. Featuring over 100 artists, from the 1960s to the present, it highlights key works, including many recent acquisitions. So many of my favourite artists are included such as Robert Ballagh, Dorothy Cross, Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Duchamp, Micheal Farrell, Barry Flanagan, Lucian Freud, Patricia Hurl, Jasper Johns, Eithne Jordan, Louis le Brocquy, Catherine Lee, Brian Maguire, Alice Maher, Brian O’Doherty, Alanna O’Kelly, Kathy Prendergast, Robert Rauschenberg, Patrick Scott, Sean Scully, Camille Souter, Nil Yalter, Jack Butler Yeats.
MORE POWER TO YOU: Sarah Purser – A Force for Irish Art
Description: Sarah Purser has long been one of my favourite figures in the history of Irish art, she was involved in everything in the Irish art world and a great artist in her own right. Finally there is a an exhibition that showcases the breadth of her achievements.
Join me for a tour of this beautifully curated exhibition that includes wonderful examples of her paintings as well as works by others who were impacted by her support and influence.
MORE POWER TO YOU: Sarah Purser – A Force for Irish Art celebrates Sarah Purser, an indomitable figure in Irish art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition examines Purser’s multifaceted role as artist, activist and collector.
Location: Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin.
Hilary Heron: A Retrospective
Description: I am so excited about this upcoming exhibition of the sculpture of one of Ireland’s leading avant-garde artists of the 20th century. Hilary Heron (Dublin, 1923-1977) was a truly pioneering artist in an often conservative field which many believed to be a masculine art form. She represented Ireland at the 1956 Venice Biennale and was an original and regular contributor of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. Her works are bizarre, strange, occasional humorous and often confronting, her works in a variety of media were reinventing the rules and challenging the expectations of Irish sculpture. This is bound to be a once in a life experience and a rare chance to enjoy her sculptures in person. On our tour I will analysis each piece and place them into the context of her career and the larger artistic movements of the time. I will also be reviewing the exhibition for RTÉ Arena in late May.
Women Impressionists
Description: Marking the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition, held in Paris in 1874, Women Impressionists showcases the works of four important artists. Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Eva Gonzalès (1849-1883), Marie Bracquemond (1860-1914) and Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) played vital roles in one of the most revolutionary movements in Western art.
Impressionism was a rebellious movement that broke all the rules which of course was doubly true for the women involved as the society the lived in was full of restrictions. The art historical accounts often placed woman artists on the outskirts of the movement but it is clear that they were a vital component and this exhibition will no doubt illustrate and prove this argument.
Location: National Gallery of Ireland
Jessica Fahy - Freelance Art Historian 