Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane presents Hugh Lane 100 Years

Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane is pleased to announce that President Mary McAleese will officially open Hugh Lane 100 Years at 6.30pm on 26th June 2008.

2008 marks the centenary of the founding of the Municipal Gallery by Hugh Lane and his supporters. The centrepiece of the Gallery’s centenary exhibition programme is Hugh Lane 100 Years, which includes his collection of 39 Continental Pictures, the first time seen in Dublin since 1913.

Hugh Lane’s vision in founding the Gallery of Modern Art was one of the most significant cultural events in these islands at the turn of the 20th century and is acknowledged as one of the most remarkable cultural achievements in the history of Modern Ireland.

“This will be the first time these paintings including world famous Impressionist paintings will be exhibited alongside the original collection in Dublin since the site controversy in 1913 when they were removed to the National Gallery, London.

With the return of the 39 Continental Pictures the original foresight and vision of Hugh Lane can be truly appreciated and it is hoped that in the future they will be reunited permanently with the original collection” Barbara Dawson.

Following a huge controversy surrounding a signed but un-witnessed codicil to Lane’s will, an agreement was finally reached in 1959 whereby the 39 Hugh Lane Bequest Paintings are shared between the National Gallery London and Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. In 1993, an further agreement was negotiated whereby the Impressionists in the group are shared equally between the two institutions.

“When Hugh Lane bought the Impressionist masterpieces so loved today, he was one of the few collectors of modern French painting in either Britain or Ireland. However, this quick-witted tenacity in a way heightens the sense of loss when you come to realise how the paintings were to slip from Dublin’s grasp with Lane’s tragic, premature death on board the Lusitania in 1915”. says Jessica O’Donnell, Acting Head of Collections.

In addition to the 39 paintings from the Hugh Lane Bequest, the exhibition will present work by key artists including William Orpen, Nathaniel Hone, George Russell, Antonio Mancini, John Singer Sargent and JBC Corot and will feature a significant selection drawn from the 300 paintings, sculpture and works on paper originally shown when the gallery first opened.

The exhibition continues until September 26. For more information visit www.hughlane.ie

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