Hugh Lane Gallery

Previously known as the 'Municipal Gallery of Modern Art', this outstanding institution of visual art in Ireland was recently renamed 'Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, although it is popularly known simply as "the Hugh Lane'. Located in Charlemont House, central Dublin, the gallery was founded by Hugh Lane on Harcourt Street in 1908, and has since moved to Parnell Street. The gallery houses a permanent collection and stages numerous art exhibitions, typically of contemporary Irish painters and sculptors. Recent enhancements to the Hugh Lane include the purchase and reconstruction of Francis Bacon's Reece Mews studio in the gallery in 2001, and a display room dedicated to the Irish American abstract art virtuoso Sean Scully.

Eve of St Agnes (1924) (Stained Glass)
by Harry Clarke.

Permanent Collection

The Hugh Lane's permanent collection, donated by its founder Sir Hugh Lane (1875-1915), now features some 2,000 works of art, including Impressionist paintings by Monet, Degas, Renoir, Manet, Corot, Millet, Puvis de Chavannes, their Irish counterparts Roderic O'Conor, Walter Osborne, Frank O'Meara and John Lavery, as well as works by outstanding contemporary artists. In addition, it features Lane's collection of English Victorian paintings including works by Albert Moore, Burne-Jones and Millais. As well as paintings, the collection includes an extensive range of sculpture, drawings, and other works on paper.

Thoroughbred Horse Walking (1865-81)
Sculpture by Edgar Degas.

Later additions include European works by Bonnard, Rouault and Vlaminck, and a representaive collection of Irish artists tracing the development of Irish art from the nationalist canvases of Sean Keating and Maurice McGonigal, to the modernism of Mainie Jellett and Mary Swanzy and the expressionism of Jack B. Yeats. The Hugh Lane Gallery also owns an excellent collection of stained glass, as exemplified by Harry Clarke's Eve of St Agnes.

Exhibition Program

The Hugh Lane Gallery hosts numerous exhibitions using works from its own collection and others. In addition, it stages periodic historical and retrospective exhibitions, predominantly of Irish artists.

Fontenay Aux Roses (1911) by French
colourist painter Pierre Bonnard

Art Education and Awareness

In addition to its permanent collection and its program of art shows, the Hugh Lane Gallery runs several other activities including a lively art awareness and education program, a lecture series, plus an outreach program to take art into the community.

For more information about the paintings, sculptures, artists and exhibitions at the Gallery, which has been one of the key institutions in the history of Irish art, please contact:

Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane
Charlemont House
Parnell Square North
Dublin 1
Ireland
Phone: 01 222 5550
Website: www.hughlane.ie

• For details of other Leinster fine art exhibitions and collections, see: Irish Art Galleries and Museums.
• For facts about painting and sculpture in Ireland, see: Guide to Irish Art

• How to Update This Mini Review of Hugh Lane Gallery