“In my father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2). I stay in a house with many bedrooms and in every one is a copy of Rathcormick: a Childhood Recalled (2001) by Homan Potterton.
It is a wonderful evocation of a Protestant childhood in Co Meath. Now my hostess will have to update her stock; the sequel will be published in November. The cover is reminiscent of many of James Lees-Milne’s diaries that have pictures by Julian Barrow. Homan is painted in a similar style by Andrew Festing and even looks rather like J L-M. I am longing to read Who Do I Think I Am? Here is what the publisher has to say about it.
When Homan Potterton was appointed Director of the National Gallery of Ireland in 1979 at the age of thirty-three, he was the youngest ever curator to take the position. Who Do I Think I Am? is the sequel to the author’s best-selling childhood memoir Rathcormick: A Childhood Recalled. Written in his uniquely witty and exquisite style, Homan Potterton regales the reader with tales of student days, summer jobs, carefree bohemian travel in Europe, and his unexpected journey to the director’s office of the National Gallery of Ireland, after his first curator’s job in the National Gallery, London.
With a keen interest in people, an observant eye and a spry humour, Potterton describes the many characters and leading lights of Dublin and London society that he encountered during his rich and varied career, including Michael Levey, Anne Crookshank, James White, Michael Scott, Desmond Guinness and Charles Haughey. Befriending Sir Alfred and Clementine Beit, he helped secure the famous Beit Collection for the Irish nation, and, in a dramatic episode, describes how he worked with Gardaí to recover the Beit paintings stolen from Russborough House by Martin Cahill in 1986.
In a shock resignation, Potterton left the National Gallery of Ireland after only eight years. Thirty years on, Who Do I Think I Am? is his charming and candid memoir; a beautifully rendered, acutely descriptive impression of the art worlds of Dublin and London in the years 1970-1990.
Homan Potterton was born in 1946 and brought up in Ireland. A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and of Edinburgh University, he was an Assistant Keeper at the National Gallery, London (1974–80) and Director of the National Gallery of Ireland (1980–88). He was Editor of Irish Arts Review, 1993–2002. His memoir of growing up on the family farm in County Meath, Rathcomick: A Childhood Recalled (2002), was a best-seller. He is the author of several art books and catalogues including The National Gallery, London (1977), Canaletto (1978) and Dutch 17th and 18th Century Paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland (1986).