Council adds Dr Thomas Ryan works to civic art collection
Image 1 of 2
Announcing the acquisition of the Thomas Ryan PRHA, 1929 – 2021, Ashbourne Collection were Meath County Council Arts Officer Gerardette Bailey, Director of Services Fiona Lawless, Cllr Gerry O’Connor, Cllr Nick Killian, cathaoirleach, Cllr Alan Tobin, Cllr Paddy Meade, Cllr Gillian Toole and Director of Services, Barry Lynch.Image 2 of 2
RIGHT: The late Dr Tom Ryan, who died in September 2021, with his portrait of writer Monk Gibbon.Meath County Council has acquired a collection of 19 works of the late Ashbourne artist, Dr Tom Ryan, who died in 2012.
To be known as 'Thomas Ryan PRHA, 1929 – 2021, Ashbourne Collection', the 19 individual water colour and pen works depict various Ashbourne buildings and streets, many of which no longer exist. As an historical record of the town and recent changes to its landscape, it is an important body of work. Created by one of Ireland's most respected artists this collection is a significant and appropriate addition to the Meath County Council Art Collection.
The works, mostly 14” x 12” in size and on paper, have now been catalogued and framed in a subtle lime oak complementing the gentility of the pieces. A long-term exhibition with accompanying information on the works and the artist will be held in the Toradh Gallery, Ashbourne early in 2024.
A highly regarded artist, designer and medallist, Dr Thomas Ryan was born in Limerick in 1929 and was educated in the Limerick College of Art and what is now the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, where he studied under well-known artists such as Sean Keating and Maurice MacGonigal.
His medallic work included designing the old Irish one pound coin and the Millennium fifty pence piece. During his ten-year presidency of the Royal Hibernian Academy, he undertook the massive task of successfully completing the unfinished RHA Gallagher Gallery in Dublin. He works in a variety of media, including oil paints, watercolours, charcoal, pencil and red and brown chalks. Some of his portraiture subjects include Ronnie Delaney, Dr Patrick Hillery, Seán Keating and Éamon de Valera. His work ‘Flight of the Earls’ and ‘GPO1916’ are two of the country’s most important historical works.
In 2007, he was honoured in his native city when he received the Honorary Freedom of Limerick along with broadcaster Terry Wogan. He lived in Ashbourne for some 45 years prior to his death in September 2021.