Belfast Gallery

Grafiti Wall, Belfast, 1973

?Graf?ti Wall?, Belfast, 1973 - Oil on board, by Ralph Lillford, 1973. Associated with Northern Ireland (1969-2007). During ?the Troubles?, Belfast street walls became a place for rival sectarian graf?ti, often painted layer upon layer. A form of psychological warfare which also demonstrated control of terrain, the slogans were often directed at the British Army, exhorting them to ?go home?, or else boasted of paramilitary loyalties, such as ?Provos Rule?. Periodically the Army would drive past these walls and throw paint bombs at the slogans. The soldier wears a fragmentation vest, commonly known as a flak jacket, over DPM (disruptive pattern material) jacket and trousers. He wears his visor up on his helmet and carries an anti-riot shield. Date: 1974

© The National Army Museum / Mary Evans Picture Library

Arrol Gantry, Belfast BL20480

The Arrol Gantry and crane at Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries' shipyard on Queen's Island, Belfast, Northern Ireland. This enormous gantry, measuring 840 feet long and over 200 feet high, was built by Sir William Arrol & Co of Glasgow to Harland & Wolff's designs. It was erected along with two new slipways in order to construct three new transatlantic liners for the White Star Line; RMS Olympic, HMHS Britannic and the infamous RMS Titanic. Photographed in March 1909 by Bedford Lemere and Company

© Historic England Archive

Under the Cherry Tree

Under the Cherry Tree (1884). Lavery, Sir John 1856-1941. Born in Belfast, Lavery began his artistic training in Glasgow. During the early 1880s he studied in Paris and made visits to the artists? colony at Grez-sur-Loing, near Fontainebleau. At Grez Lavery was one of many young artists to set up their easels in the fields around the picturesque village and work en plein-air, a term used to describe painting in the open air. Under the Cherry Tree is larger and more ambitious than any Lavery had previously attempted. It is a youthful masterwork, heavily influenced by Bastien-Lepage and was intended to display the painterly techniques he had recently acquired through study in France. The composition of Under the Cherry Tree is divided into three distinct areas and Lavery employed a different technique in the painting of each. Date: 1884

© National Museums NI / MARY EVANS