Hellelil & Hildebrand Turret Stairs Canvas Print | Frederic W. Burton

Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs - Frederic William Burton

Painted in 1864, this is one of the best-loved works in the National Gallery of Ireland and has been voted Ireland's favourite painting. It shows the doomed lovers Hellelil and Hildebrand from a Danish ballad meeting on a turret stair - he pressing his lips to her arm, she unable to look. It is a watercolour and gouache of extraordinary tenderness.

Frederic William Burton (1816-1900) was one of Ireland's finest nineteenth-century artists, a master watercolourist who later became Director of the National Gallery in London. The original is held in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Read the story behind the painting — the Danish ballad it comes from, the two hours a week the original is on view, and how it came to be voted Ireland's favourite.

About this work

The Meeting on the Turret Stairs was painted by the Irish artist Frederic William Burton (1816–1900) in 1864. It shows Hellelil and Hildebrand passing on a stone spiral stair: he lifts her arm to his lips, and she turns her face away, in the last moment before her brothers kill him. The National Gallery of Ireland catalogues it under the full title Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs, and it is usually called simply the Turret Stairs — in 2012 the Irish public voted it their favourite painting in the gallery. The original is watercolour and gouache on paper, 95.5 × 60.8 cm, and hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI.2358), where, because the paper is light-sensitive, it is kept in a cabinet and shown only two hours a week. This canvas print is an open edition, made to order and shipped worldwide.

Sizes & Format

• 40x60 cm / 16x24″
• 60x90 cm / 24x36″

Canvas Details

Printed on artist-grade canvas and stretched on a slim wooden frame - arrives ready to hang.

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