[10] In the early 1880s, the Cork School of Design was extended with funds and patronage from members of the Crawford family, who were local landowners and brewers.

[8] Among the earliest acquisitions in the gallery's collection are casts of classical Greek and Roman statues by Antonio Canova.

[13] He in turn had received them from Pope Pius VII, who had commissioned Antonio Canova to make a set of plasters from statues in the Vatican.

These include works by James Brenan (who was headmaster of the school from 1860 to 1889)[15] and students such as Henry Jones Thaddeus and William Gerard Barry.

[16] Other items in the collection include works by sculptors such as John Hogan and Eilis O'Connell,[17] stained-glass artists like Harry Clarke and Evie Hone,[18] painters including William Orpen (a student of James Brenan),[19] Jack B. Yeats, and Nano Reid,[16][20] as well as photographer Bob Carlos Clarke.