Dublin Wall Art: Prints of the City, from the Liffey to Old Maps

Dublin wall art ranges from black and white photographs of the Liffey to Walter Osborne's paintings of the city's parks and courts, and 18th-century street maps of the whole place. If you are choosing a Dublin print, the useful first question is which Dublin you want on the wall: the modern waterfront, the Georgian and Victorian city, or the old plans that show how it grew.

Buy Irish Art stocks prints in all three groups. This guide walks through them, with the practical points that decide which one suits a room. For the wider range, start at the Irish art prints hub.

Photographs of the modern city

Photography suits Dublin well because so much of it is water and stone. Two prints in the shop stand out for a hallway or an office wall. The Ha'penny Bridge at night is a black and white image with the lamps reflected in the Liffey. The bridge opened in 1816, and the name comes from the halfpenny toll once charged to cross it. Black and white keeps the picture quiet and works with almost any frame.

For colour, the Samuel Beckett Bridge print shows the harp-shaped bridge and the Convention Centre lit at night, which suits a modern room or a home office. Out on the coast, the Forty Foot at Dún Laoghaire and the Baily Lighthouse at Howth cover the Dublin that people leave the city to reach. More of this kind sit in the Irish photographic prints collection.

Paintings of the Victorian city

If you would rather have a painted Dublin, Walter Osborne is the obvious name. He worked in the city at the end of the 19th century and painted its people more than its monuments. The St Stephen's Green print is the gentlest of them, all dappled light under trees, and it sits well in a living room or bedroom. The Four Courts and the Christchurch Cathedral sketch give you the architecture instead. There is more on him on the Walter Osborne artist page.

For the bay rather than the streets, Edwin Hayes's A View of Dublin Bay is a marine painting with a lot of sky, a good choice where a photograph would feel too modern.

Old maps and views

Maps are the most distinctive Dublin wall art, and the most underrated. A map suits a hall, stairwell or study, and it gives a long wall something to read. The shop has several: the 1797 Faden map, Cooke's Royal Map with vignettes of principal buildings, Herman Moll's 1714 city plan, and a nautical chart of Dublin Bay. Browse the full vintage maps of Ireland collection, or read our piece on maps as wall art.

Posters and landmark prints

For something brighter, the Dublin retro travel poster works as a bold, simple piece, and the Dublin Castle and St Patrick's Cathedral prints suit a gift for someone who left the city. More posters are in the Irish posters collection, and the vintage Irish posters guide explains the style.

Choosing for your room

Dark, detailed images such as the night photographs need a wall with some distance from the viewer, so they work well along a hall or above a sofa. Maps reward close reading and suit a spot where people pause. Paintings with soft colour fit bedrooms and dining rooms. Frame colour matters more than people expect: black for photographs, a warmer wood for Osborne and Hayes. Our framing guide covers the details, and The Art of Dublin goes deeper into the painters behind the city's best-known views.