Hugh Lane 100 Years

• 
26 June 2008 - 31 December 2009

Due to the overwhelming success of the centenary exhibition, Hugh Lane 100 Years, a substantial part of the exhibition, drawn from the Gallery’s permanent collection, will remain on display until the end of 2008. This includes works by Irish, British and Continental artists, displayed throughout the ground floor of the Gallery. Highlights include paintings by Monet, Manet, Courbet and Degas, from the Lane Bequest 1917.

A book accompanying the centenary exhibition called ‘Hugh Lane: Founder of a Gallery of Modern Art for Ireland’ is published by Scala Publishers. It celebrates the pioneering achievement of Hugh Lane in founding a gallery of modern art, one of the world’s first, in Dublin a century ago. The publication includes a full catalogue of the Hugh Lane 100 Years exhibition. Many of the world-renowned treasures collected by Lane are illustrated, including all of Lane’s contested thirty-nine Continental paintings, providing an insight into the man and his age.

Distinguished essayists explore the importance of Lane’s legacy. Barbara Dawson, Robert O’Byrne and Roy Foster illuminate Lane’s life, the cultural context of Ireland in the early twentieth century and the controversy over the thirty-nine Continental paintings. Jessica O’Donnell, Philip McEvansoneya and Christopher Riopelle detail the founding of the collection, Lane’s acquisition of important Impressionist paintings and the wider European context for the collection. Joanna Shepard reveals the essential work of conservators in preparing Lane’s legacy for exhibition. Raymund Ryan, Seán O’Reilly and John Redmill explore the architectural context of the Gallery’s current home, Charlemont House, and the collections once housed there by Lord Charlemont, while Niamh Ann Kelly reflects on the relationship of contemporary art to the art of the past.