An original stalwart of Dublin's art scene

Peter Oliver Nulty was a stalwart and an original of the Dublin art scene, who made his mark as a promoter when it wasn't fashionable…

Peter Oliver Nulty was a stalwart and an original of the Dublin art scene, who made his mark as a promoter when it wasn't fashionable, of late 19th and 20th century Irish painting in the 1960s, '70s and '80s.

As the owner and founder of the Oriel Gallery on the capital's Clare Street, he advanced the cause of such artists as Humbert Craig, AE (George Russell, who until this time had been much better known as a writer), Percy French (again, better known as a balladeer) and Paul Henry.

He was a notable dealer in the work of Northern Irish artists; apart from Henry and Craig, these included Frank McKelvey, Charles McAuley, William Conor and Markey Robinson among others. He was especially fond of the latter painter, whom he first met in Belfast in 1953, exhibiting his work nearly every year from 1970 onwards, and, in 1979, commissioning the stained glass based on Robinson's paintings which adorns the front of the gallery today.

His opening exhibition, in 1968, introduced, or renewed an interest in, the paintings of AE and Percy French, about the latter of whom he was to write a book, Lead Kindly Light, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Oriel two years ago.

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He was a friend of French's two daughters, Ettie and Joan, who, in their 90s, attended an exhibition of their father's work at the gallery in 1988, which was opened by the late Sir Peter Ustinov.

He developed a market for Irish artists which extended well beyond Ireland, holding exhibitions in Washington DC, Montreal (twice), London, Tokyo and Geneva and building up a strong international clientele, especially in the United States, and particularly for the work of Jack B.Yeats.

He was also a champion of Irish women painters, including the work of Mary Swanzy, Letitia Hamilton and Mainie Jellett among others. A special exhibition on the theme of Irish Women Artists of the Avant Garde was opened by President Robinson in one of her first official functions as President in 1991.

The achievement was all the more remarkable for being untutored. Nulty had no training as an artist or art historian and, for the first 20 or so years of his professional life, was an antique and furniture dealer.

Oliver Nulty was born into a prosperous family of hoteliers in Drogheda, Co Louth, in 1920, one of four sons of James Nulty and his wife Monica (nee McCormack). His mother died when he was aged just six months, and he himself was nearly killed in 1922, when the family home was shelled during the Civil War.

Oliver was educated at a boarding school, but the family's fortunes declined in the 1930s and he had to forgo ambitions to go to university, going to work instead at an antique shop in his native town.

It was a blessing in disguise. A shrewd businessman, he opened his own shop in Dundalk and began dabbling in Victorian paintings, making buying trips to London. There, where he went to live for a time in the 1960s, he mixed with artists and dealers and eventually decided to return to Dublin and open his own gallery.

In 1965, he bought the small Georgian house on Clare Street where the business continues to the present day, for £1,500. Originally operating as a furniture and carpet store, he realised his ambition of starting a gallery there three years later.

In Dublin, he became a notable bon viveur, whose parties at his home on Pembroke Road were renowned among his friends and acquaintances. He married late, in 1999, Maureen O'Sullivan, an advertising executive, who died last year. He is survived by a son, Mark, from a previous relationship in the 1960s, who is the current principal of the Oriel Gallery.

Oliver Nulty: March born 1920; died January 5th, 2005.