Where acting meets art: Portrait of Limerick-raised actress hangs in National Gallery

TWO NEW portraits of Irish actors, including one of Limerick-raised Ruth Negga, have been unveiled at the National Gallery of Ireland this week.

Ms Negga and fellow Irish actor Stephen Rea are the subjects of the portraits.

The works are by Dublin painter David Booth (Ruth, 2025, oil on board) and Wicklow-based photographer David Stephenson (Stephen Rea (b.1946 Belfast), actor, 2025, photograph on archival paper). 

Both artists were winners of the Portrait Prize at the National Gallery of Ireland. Mr Booth won in 2022 for his work Salvatore, a portrait of his friend and fellow artist Salvatore of Lucan, while Mr Stephenson received the prize in 2023 for his photograph Ann and Ollie, Main Street, Wexford.

Ruth Negga, born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and raised in Limerick, is an actor, producer, and now subject of an oil painting.

“It has been a total and complete privilege to be the sitter for David’s work,” she said, before thanking Mr Booth and the National Gallery of Ireland. 

“Luckily for me he appears to have infused my portrait with his own qualities of grace, tenderness and that thing that I believe is crucial to art; a sense of the mysterious. Thank you for this extraordinary honour.”

Ms Negga studied at Trinity College Dublin and the British American Drama Academy, and is known for her critically acclaimed performances on stage and screen, among them roles in the movies Breakfast on Pluto (2005), Loving (2021) and Passing (2021). 

She has appeared in many television productions, and received several nominations and awards. In 2025 she received her second Emmy nomination for her role in the television series Presumed Innocent.

In 2017, she received an Academy Award nomination in the Actress in a Lead Role category for her performance in Loving, directed by Jeff Nichols. 

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The creator of the piece, David Booth, moved to Dublin to “establish himself” as a full-time artist after completing a BFA at Wexford Campus School of Art in 2013, David Booth moved to Dublin to establish himself as a full-time artist. 

He has exhibited both in Ireland and abroad, with his work featuring in both public and private collections in Ireland.

He has also won the Evans Painting Prize in 2016 and was shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2019. 

This commissioned portrait of Ruth Negga is part of the Portrait Prize 2022 (then the Zurich Portrait Prize). Mr Booth was shortlisted for the prize on two earlier occasions (2018 and 2020). 

He considered many possible settings when preparing his portrait of Ms Negga. These included Trinity College and a coffee shop he knew she had frequented. 

He and his subject finally settled on the courtyard in the National Gallery of Ireland, as it provided filtered light that would ensure good preparatory photographs. 

Booth wanted his subject to be looking directly at the viewer, and though he took “scores of photographs”, he ended up using his first as the basis for his painting. 

“It’s truly an honour to have this portrait of Ruth unveiled at the National Gallery of Ireland. My aim from the outset was for her gaze to confront the viewer directly, establishing a powerful sense of presence and immediacy,” he said. 

“Our collaboration throughout the process was one of friendship and openness, which shaped the portrait deeply. I hope the portrait brings viewers close, offering a sense of her warmth, resilience, and unmistakable presence.”

The national portrait collection at the National Gallery of Ireland “celebrates the most influential figures in Irish history”. 

The fields of Irish endeavour represented range from sport, literature and broadcasting to theatre and social justice. 

Dr Caroline Campbell, director of the National Gallery of Ireland, said: “It’s an absolute honour for the National Gallery of Ireland to unveil these magnificent portraits to the public. Artists David Stephenson and David Booth were terrific and worthy winners of our Portrait Prize in 2022 and 2023. We are so proud to see their portraits of Ruth Negga and Stephen Rea – actors who have added so much to the Irish cultural tapestry both at home and abroad – hang on our walls today.” 

These two new portraits are now on display to the public, for free, in the Portrait Gallery at the National Gallery of Ireland.