Artist and art teacher Áine Andrews returns with another series of lectures on Famous Paintings and their Hidden Histories. In each lecture, Áine will focus on a particular painting to recount its history, as well as that of the artist and their story.

The lectures can be attended as a series, but are also designed as standalone talks, which can be attended individually. See series info »

Week 6: Nativity Window

Evie Hone, 1944

Manresa – Jesuit Centre of Spirituality Dublin

Evie Hone’s Nativity has been widely reproduced, often as a Christmas card, but the history of the commission has only recently been fully documented.

The Nativity was the first part of a suite of five windows commissioned in 1944, for the small chapel used by the community of St Stanislaus College at the Jesuit novitiate at Tullybeg Co Offaly.

Evie Hone was born into an established Anglo-Irish family but the age of eleven she contracted polio which resulted in several operations and a lifelong disability.

Undeterred, however, she embarked on a career in art, initially in painting with her great friend Mainie Jellett before joining An Túr Gloine to devote herself entirely to working in stained glass.

In the 1990s, the Nativity and the other four windows were permanently moved to Manresa Jesuit Centre of Spirituality in Dollymount, Dublin, where they can be seen today.

1. Tues 28 October
Portrait of Hugh Lane by John Singer Sargent – Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane Dublin

2. Tues 4 November
The Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso – Tate Gallery London

3. Tues 18 November
Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels by Clara Peeters – The Mauritshuis the Hague

4. Tues 25 November
The Birth of Venus by Botticelli – Uffizi Gallery Florence

5. Tues 2 December
The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio – National Gallery of Ireland Dublin

6. Tues 9 December
Nativity Window by Evie Hone – Manresa – Jesuit Centre of Spirituality Dublin