Ireland day 1472. Thursday 09 October 2025- Picasso

Today’s summary	Spent most of the day in Dublin at the Picasso exhibition which opened at the National Gallery today. Quite small and not spectacular, but very interesting. Returned to the flat late afternoon for beans on toast, TV, an a nice glass of Malbec.
Today’s weather	Cloudy but dry. Moderate westerly wind. Appx 15c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows our location)		Close-up location (The blue mark shows where we were) (No GPX today)

Commentary

Yesterday evening I happened to be reading the “Financial Times” and rather to my surprise I found myself browsing through a piece about an exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s works at the National Gallery of Ireland. Purely by chance it turned out that the exhibition actually opened its doors today.

I’m not much of an art fan – modern art in particular I often find a bit self indulgent. But the chance to see the works of one of the artistic giants of the 20th century right on our own doorstep, so to speak, seemed too good to miss. In a further surprising development, the booking website revealed that there were plenty of tickets available for the exhibition today. I had rather assumed that, being the opening, it would have been oversubscribed months ago, but in fact tickets were available throughout the day. So I snapped up two for 1pm.

That gave us plenty of time for our cups of tea and the other usual morning activities, but the time passed remarkably fast and it was soon time to go. We caught a train at about 11:45 which got us to the gallery just after 12:30 which just gave us enough time for a quick lunch (very nice curry by the way).

Then we went into the exhibition. It was quite small, with around five gallery bays dedicated to his works. Maybe 50-100 pieces in total. Although it wasn’t flashy or spectacular, I actually found it interesting. His lifestyle was unorthodox – born in Malaga, Spain, but spending most of his life in France, living in numerous houses with several wives, lovers and children, and always with a cigarette in his hand. Despite (or perhaps because of) his hedonistic existence, he made it to 91 and was actively painting until only a few hours before he died.

So a very worthwhile sojourn I thought. We treated ourselves to a couple of souvenirs from the shop afterwards (don’t get too excited – it was only a postcard and a calendar) then caught the train back to Malahide.

Once out of the station, I was despatched to Tesco to get dinner – and seeing as I’m in charge I’m not embarrassed to admit it’s beans on toast. Val meanwhile returned to the flat to get on with her sewing.

The rest of the evening was spent enjoying a couple of glasses of Malbec that Val bought from O’Brien’s off-licence on her way back to the flat. Plus of course my beans on toast, some half price Gu desserts that I couldn’t resist, and a few minutes’ TV. What an unusually cultured day!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Outside the entrance to the National gallery on Merrion Street	A general overview of the exhibition – entitled “Picasso: From the Studio”. It was quite small but well done and worth the €11.30 [senior] admission fee I thought

Val becoming erudite	This was one of my favourite of the works on display today. “Juan-les-Pins”, where he lived in the summer of 1920



The man himself