The annual exhibitions of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts, founded in 1823 and still active today, provided a bridge between the Irish artist and the public, including critics and collectors. The Academy also ran the main art school for aspiring artists in the nineteenth century. During the Easter Rising of 1916 its galleries and school in Lower Abbey Street were destroyed by fire.

It survived in borrowed space, but faced major challenges from modernism in the visual arts. By the end of the twentieth century it had redefined its role in its new gallery in Ely Place, opened, still incomplete, in 1985. The narrative of this stunning compendium is one of change, conflict and adaption.

The book is divided into two volumes that describe two different political, social and artistic worlds: Volume One (1823-1916), and Volume Two (1916-2010).