Nations Favourite Painting

I'm not sure if many of you remember but in 2012 the Irish public were invited, by RTE, to find the nations favourite painting.

The winning painting was a watercolour painting 'Hellelil and Hildebrand,The Meeting on the Turret Stairs' (1864)

By Frederic William Burton (1816–1900)

This painting hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.

One in five of those who voted (22 per cent) went for the romantic 19th century depiction of a young soldier stealing an illicit kiss from his beloved as they pass on a turret stair.

Burton was from Corofin, Co Clare.

So many people think that watercolours don't last the test of time.......this work looks as fresh now as when it was painted.