Born: January 28th, 1938
Died: September 15th, 2025
Ann Griffin Bernstorff who has died at 87, was an artist, designer, collector and historian best known for the Ros Tapestry, 15 large-scale intricate tapestries depicting the history of New Ross, the town founded by William Marshall in 1207. A Wexford, Kilkenny and Waterford community effort, it was reckoned to be one of the largest series of embroidered tapestries ever made in Europe and involved more than 150 local volunteers.
She also founded the Berkeley Costume and Toy Collection at her home Berkeley Forest, an early Georgian house with a tillage and sheep farm outside New Ross, and the Berkeley Bonneterie, a collection of miniature replica hats that were made locally in antique period fabrics.
A noted artist known for her stylised magic realism and for portraiture, her work has been exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad and is held in private and public collections including the Office of Public Works, the National Self Portrait Exhibition and the University of Limerick.
Though many of her paintings are inspired by Irish myths and legends, including one called The Paidrin Mare at the Curragh, which centred on a famous 18th century Irish horse, in the United States her work connects with a tradition established by 19th century painters such as Edward Hicks, celebrated for his depictions of farms and rural landscapes.
RM Block
She first started exhibiting in the Portal Gallery in London in the late 1980s and had solo exhibitions at the Peppercanister Gallery in Dublin in 2006 and the Galerie Arteconte in Paris in 2011.
Ann Griffin was born near Patrickswell in Co Limerick, one of four children of John Griffin, a horticulturalist, and his wife Jean (née Quaid), an artist who had studied with Sean Keating and was influenced by Harry Clarke. Growing up, Griffin’s twin passions were horses and painting, though she knew from the age of four that she wanted to be an artist. However, she was sent initially to train in horticulture in France, like her father, with family friends called de Vilmorin who owned one of the world’s foremost seed and plant nurseries, outside Paris.
Thanks to her mother’s influence, Griffin managed to change course (though she retained a lifelong love of horticulture) and became a student at the National College of Art in Dublin, attending night classes while working as a picture restorer with specialist art dealer James Gorry in Molesworth Street.
She would come home from work at 7pm and paint until three in the morning. Having won the Taylor art scholarship twice, her mother encouraged her to study at Atelier Yves Brayer and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris.
Back home in Limerick, she met and married Count Gunnar Bernstorff, from a distinguished aristocratic Danish family, prominent in political life, who had come to Ireland to farm. After their marriage they set about restoring the Berkeley Forest estate, which he had bought in 1958. There they planted thousands of hardwood trees and reared their three children, Andreas, Alexis and Axel.
She made her own artistic mark on the house – her distinctive and colourful interiors featured in several magazines and books.
Her children have inherited her creativity; Alexis, like her mother, is a textile specialist and was responsible for the restoration of textiles at Farmleigh, Axel is an award-winning photographer and Andreas, a London banker.
Creator of the cartoons (drawings) for the Ros Tapestry and an authority on Irish medieval life, she was forensic in her research and historical accuracy, down to details of how the Normans lived and worked, and what they ate and wore. She could be equally expansive on topics as diverse as Italian primitive painting, Border Leicester sheep, forestry, church architecture, corsets and 18th century dress.
A fascination with the past and love of textiles always informed her work, and collecting antique toys and costumes started as a hobby but developed into an impressive collection that opened to the public in 1993.
Always interested in antique dolls, Griffin Bernstorff maintained that they were not mere playthings but idealised images of human desire and womanhood of their time. Adults made them and bought them, she maintained, “so what you are seeing is a very adult exercise”.
Her Berkeley Forest Costume Museum containing an impressive collection of period costumes, accessories, antique dolls, toys and embroidered textiles in Ireland, received an important acquisition two years ago of six exquisite French late 19th century ballgowns in pristine condition. These came from the Balsan family who set Chanel up in business and who had connections with the de Vilmorin family with whom Griffin remained friends. These dresses in the finest silks, velvets, taffetas, organdies and lace are now pieces de resistance in the museum.
Griffin was also a founding member of the Wexford Arts Centre and the Irish Country Furniture Society, and was involved with the Irish Patchwork Society. At the memorial service in St Mary’s Church, New Ross, led by the Dean of Ferns, Dr Paul Mooney, her daughter Alexis described her mother “as one who broke many moulds. Her legacy will shine for generations”.
Ann Griffin Bernstorff is survived by her children Andreas, Alexis, Alex and grandchildren Allegra, Lavinia, Elettra, Axelo and Auberon.
