A true servant of the arts

In one of his last published pieces, Séamus Heaney recalled his friendship with the art critic Dorothy Walker, currently the subject of an exhibition in Dublin.

Dorothy Walker was good at everything. Art criticism. Cooking. Curating. Welcoming. Conversing. Her brio was infectious, her physical and intellectual stamina seemingly inexhaustible, her courage in defence of the standards she believed in unshakeable.

Those standards were not only aesthetic; she had what the Renaissance called ‘sprezzatura’, an ethic of lightness in even the most serious of situations. This appeared most compellingly in her bright, brave demeanour in the face of death, during the long period she had to spend in hospital. But it was also there in her punctilio as cook and hostess in her own house: the way she could roast and carve a goose or a couple of pheasants for a round table crowded with family and lucky guests, all the while giving vent to praise and dispraise in relation to current exhibitions and reputations.