‘My Education’: Sir William Gregory, the Grand Tours, and the Visual Arts

Abstract

Remport describes in detail one of the most important yet one of the most neglected aspects of Lady Gregory’s life: her Grand Tours of art galleries and museums across Europe with her husband Sir William Gregory. Remport demonstrates that her travels with Sir William were of enormous significance to her deep involvement with cultural activities in Ireland after the death of her husband, most famously through her co-directorship of the Abbey Theatre and the plays that she wrote for it. Discussing the many art works that she viewed with her husband during visits to Italy, Greece, France, and Spain, Remport illustrates the formation of Lady Gregory’s artistic sensibility and the esteemed position in the upper echelons of late nineteenth-century London society that she acquired through these Grand Tours.