Russborough House

[
Palladian architecture.] Russborough House is a stately house situated near the Blessington Lakes in County Wicklow, Ireland, between the towns of Blessington and Ballymore Eustace. It is a particularly fine example of Palladian architecture, designed by Richard Cassels for Joseph Leeson, 1st Earl of Milltown, and built between 1741 and 1755. The interior of the house contrasts with the austere exterior by way of some ornate plasterwork on the ceilings by the Lafranchini brothers, who also collaborated with Cassels on Carton House.

Russborough has housed two fine art collections, begun with the Milltown estate, whose collection was donated to the National Gallery of Ireland upon the death of the last Earl. Sir Alfred Beit bought the house in 1952 where he housed his own family's collection, comprising works by many great artists, including Goya, Vermeer, Peter Paul Rubens and Thomas Gainsborough. This collection was since robbed four times, in 1974 by a gang including British heiress Rose Dugdale, in 1986 by Martin Cahill (nicknamed "The General"), in 2001, and in 2002. Two paintings, Gainsborough's "Madame Bacelli" and Vermeer's "The Letter Writer", the latter probably the most valuable painting of the collection, were stolen twice across the thefts, although each was subsequently recovered. The Beit collection has donated many of its works to the state and the house remains open to the public, having been opened by the Alfred Beit Foundation in 1978.

ee also

*Palladian architectureNew web site for Russborough House now at [http://www.russborough.ie]

Paintings return to Russborough May 2008

A substantial proportion of the paintings have been returned to Russborough House and are now on view to those taking a tour of the house.

Amongst the finest of the paintings returned are the four Claude Joseph Vernet paintings entitled ‘Morning’ ‘Midday’ ‘Sunset’ and ‘Night’. These paintings were actually painted for Russborough in the 1750’s and have remained in the house for most of the last 260 years! [http://www.russborough.ie/home.html www.russborough.ie/home.html]

ources

* [http://kildare.ie/heritage/historic-sites/russborough.asp Info from kildare.ie]
* [http://www.rte.ie/news/2001/0626/paintings2.html RTE: History of robberies in Russborough]
*cite book |last= Dolnick |first= Edward |title= The Rescue Artist |publisher= HarperCollins |year= 2005 |month= June |isbn= 9780060531171