- Collections
- Exhibitions
-
Blog Series
- RDS Celebrates 100 Years at its Ballsbridge Headquarters
- Dublin Horse Show Collection
- From Dublin to the Nile: Lawrence E. Steele's Life and Legacy
- The Letters of George Francis Fitzgerald
- John Tyndall: The "Xcentric" Irish Scientist
- Signatures and Sonatas: An Exploration of the RDS Concert Archive
- Ads, Articles and Aristocrats: The Dublin Horse Show Annuals
- RDS Foundation Timeline
- Online Catalogue
- Privacy
- Guide to Searching
- Collection Tree
The Earl of Chesterfield
Jan van Nost the younger, Portrait Bust of Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
The RDS commissioned this portrait of its President, Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, in 1769. An unusually popular Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Chesterfield opened Dublin’s Phoenix Park to the public. Completely unrelated - but delightful nonetheless - he also appears to have scandalised the English critic and essayist Dr. Johnson, who declared that the Earl inculcated "the manners of a dancing master."1 Small wonder he was a favourite here then!
1Boswell, J. The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. 1791.