Pictures at the Abbey

Ever since the Abbey Theatre opened in 1940 the collection of portraits on the walls of its foyer has steadily grown. In the beginning, as Yeats wrote, these were all by an Irish artist, actually his father, the painter J.B. Yeats, but the collection now includes portraits by several renowned Irish painters depicting the players, many of whom have achieved worldwide fame. In the 1940s Robinson described the collection in his charming essay Pictures in a Theatre. This is incorporated into Michel hAodha's text which describes the origins of the collection and brings the account up to date.