Hugh Lane Gallery Celebrate's Centenary

Celebration to include reunited paintings of Impressionist Masters

Anyone who's visiting Dublin during the Summer of 2008 is in for a real treat. As the Hugh Lane Gallery celebrates its centenary, bringing together for the first time his entire collection of Impressionist masterpieces.

Starting on 27 June and running through 28 Sep 2008, the Hugh Lane Centenary Exhibition will feature a range of Impressionist masters, most notably works by Corot, Millet, Puvis de Chavannes, Manet, Monet, Degas and Renoir. This will include the entire original collection of Sir Hugh Lane, the museum's founder, brought together for the first time since 1913 in honour of the centenary year.

At 4pm on 20th January 1908 Hugh Lane opened the first metropolitan gallery of contemporary art in the world. In doing so he accomplished what he set out to achieve, a gallery of modern art for Dublin, where the best international and Irish paintings hang side by side in what the French newspaper Le Figaro described as ‘an entire museum rich in beautiful works, a museum envied by the most prosperous states…”

Now Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane houses the foremost public collection of modern and contemporary art in Ireland. The original collection donated by Hugh Lane and his supporters, is celebrated for including some of the most famous Impressionist paintings in the world most notably Les Parapluies by Renoir.

To mark this very special centenary year of 2008, the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane has planned a comprehensive programme of exhibitions and events to mark this significant event in Dublin’s history.

Programmes will feature a huge public art work in O’Connell Street by Julian Opie. Two major exhibitions will feature the work of abstract artists and artists who have made significant contributions to contemporary art in spite of their early deaths. And the gallery will also host two solo shows by established Irish artists Mark Francis and Fergus Martin.

But one centenary year event captures most the attention is the Hugh Lane Centenary Exhibition, which will feature the re-hanging of Hugh Lane’s original collection of 300 paintings from 1908. This collection of paintings will be united for the first time since a will dispute broke out in 1915, following Hugh Lane's untimely death aboard the Lusitania. The resulting "settlement" has the paintings shared by the National Gallery in London and the Hugh Lane. But in honour of the centenary year the original 300 paintings will be reunited, constituting a most impressive exhibit.

The Hugh Lane Centenary Exhibition will run from 27 June through 28 Sep 2008, will feature a range of Impressionist masters, most notably works by Corot, Millet, Puvis de Chavannes, Manet, Monet, Degas and Renoir.