Impressions from Hugh Lane

Irish Arts Review

Impressions from Hugh LaneAuthor(s): Mic MoroneySource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 25, No. 2 (Summer, 2008), pp. 74-77Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20493316 .

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Impressions from

Hugh Lane

This summer sees Dublin City

Gallery arrayed with its debut

collection of 300 works of art and,

for the first since 1913, all thirty

nine of the controversial conditional

paintings will be shown together,

writes MIC MORONEY

A fter breathing the rarified air of its new modern

wing since 2006, Dublin City Gallery (DCG) is

reverting to its origins as Hugh Lane's celebrated

1908 prototype of a Municipal Gallery of Modern

Art. The show includes most of the 300 original works, plus

pieces Lane added to the collection before he drowned with the

Lusitania. It fills the entire building, seeping into the new gal

leries, where the old paintings have demanded staining the

white walls with warmer hues, even salon-style hanging.

This demonstrates the sheer scale of Lane's achievement. He

personally donated over 100 pieces, and charmed many more from

patrons and artists to create a great sweep of Irish work (Orpen,

Osborne, Lavery, Hone, John B Yeats, O'Meara, AE, O'Connor,

even Constance Markievicz); seventy-odd British specimens

(Augustus John, Whistler, Sickert, Solomons, amongst others);

and his Continental crop of Rodins, Courbets, Corots in profusion,

and of course, the 'eight superstars' of the Impressionists.

Lane commissioned portraits of many eminent Irishfolk: from

Michael Davitt to Jacob Epstein's unflattering Lady Gregory. Lane

himself hovers, immortalised by Sargent, Mancini, and a Max

Beerbohm cartoon, while Orpen's Homage to Manet depicts critic

novelist George Moore declaiming to his fellow aesthetes (includ

ing an attentively pensive Lane) beneath Manet's momentous

Eva Gonzalez. And for the first time in a century, all thirty-nine

of Lane's 'disputed bequest' paintings hang together in Dublin.

74 | IRISH ARTS REVIEW SUMMER 2008



IMPRESSIONS FROM HUGH LANE

COLLECTIONS

In the 1920s and 1930s, Lady Gregory and Thomas Bodkin

wrote prosyletising books about Lane and his bequest (Bodkin on the instruction of the Irish government!), but Lane's life has

only since been revisited by Robert O'Byrne's biography.' Born in Cork but raised in England, Lane arrived in London with an

introduction to the Keeper of the Queen's Pictures from his aunt, Lady Gregory, whose late husband had been a Trustee of

London's National Gallery (NGE). Lane joined the Colnaghi dealership, learnt to clean and restore paintings, but quickly

went independent. Despite no academic training, he was adept

at spotting neglected old masters, made several fortunes, and began collecting modern work.

His eccentricities were legion: the outlandish expenditure on art, jewellery and gambling, whilst skimping on food. Dandyish in

youth and notepaper, he remained a bachelor. He radiated an aes

thetic anxiety, and when visiting intimates, would rearrange

paintings, flowers, furniture, even friends. John B Yeats recalled

how Lane tidied him up 'from neck to ankle' with a clothes brush.2

Lane's broader impact on Irish art is often overlooked. In

1904, he ran an exhibition of 465 Irish works in London's

Guildhall, tracing a distinctly Irish school of painting, from Buck

and Hamilton, through Mulready and Danby, to many contem

poraries. William Orpen profited greatly, and the pair became

lifelong friends (arguably, Orpen opened Lane's eyes to the

Impressionists soon thereafter). After Dublin Corporation rejected Lane's Liffey Bridge gallery

plan, he bequeathed his thirty-nine conditional Continental paintings to London's National Gallery (NGE). However, in

1913, the Trustees deemed only fifteen 'worthy of temporary exhibition', dismissing Monet's shimmering Lavacourt under Snow and Renoir's iconic Les Parapluies as 'modern French decadents'.

Soon after, Lane was appointed director of Dublin's National

Gallery (NGI), and he wrote the unwitnessed codicil to his will,

pledging the 'conditional' paintings back to Dublin. Meanwhile, he astonished the NGI board by gifting them twenty-four paint

ings, and after his death, scores more by Gainsborough,

Reynolds, Constable, Poussin, Hogarth, Lorrain, Rembrandt, Goya, Titian - plus his estate, the sale of which afforded NGI a

purchase fund for decades.

Much is known about the Irish campaign for the return of the

conditional paintings, led initially by Lady Gregory. But more

recently, art historian Anne Kelly has unearthed the English side

from both NGE and State papers, revealing that while English

politicians were often consiliatory, NGE's Trustees furiously

asserted their legal right to the paintings. Lord Curzon, their

Chairman, who approached Lane for the pictures in the first

place, became Foreign Secretary, and even chaired a Committee

to prevent pictures leaving Britain; thus bamboozling oppo

nents, and keeping the pictures in London.3

The Irish War of Independence prompted some British politi

cians to fear the pictures would become political dynamite. Lady Gregory implored Michael Collins during the Anglo-Irish negoti ations, and the English noted he made a 'strong request', 'almost amounting to a demand' and the issue was raised subsequently by

W T Cosgrave, de Valera and John A Costello. But when in 1933,

SIJMMER 2008 IRISH ARTS REVIEW | 7 5



IMPRESSIONS FROM HUGH LANE

COLLECTIONS

de Valera opened the gallery's permanent

home in Parnell Square, one bare room con

tained only a copy of the codicil, photo

graphs of the pictures and Albert Power's

little marble bust of Lane.

In 1947, the publication of Lady Gregory's

journals reopened wounds, and even English

reviewers bemoaned the NGE's niggardli

ness. In 1956, two Irish students briefly

removed Berthe Morisot's Jour d'Ete' from

the Tate, before returning it via the Irish

Embassy. In 1957, Harold Macmillan com

missioned a report which concluded that a

settlement would greatly improve Anglo

Irish relations at little cost, yet mused: 'It is questionable whether

a compromise would ever satisfy the Irish, feeling as strongly as

they do. Is it not better to leave the pictures where they belong

and where they are valued, and to leave the Irish with their griev

ance, which they enjoy?'4

Finally in 1959, London agreed to loan Dublin some pictures.

In 1979, London ceded many more (on long-term loan), and in

1993, the Hugh Lane Director, Barbara Dawson negotiated a

'rotating arrangement' for the major Impressionists: Renoir,

Morisot, Monet, two Manets, Degas' Sur la Plage, Pissarro's Vue

de Louveciennes; and Vuillard's La Cheminee. Yet only now has

London released the last four paintings: Corot's smouldering

Avignon from the West; Ingres' Duc d'Orleans (one of several ver

sions); Daumier's warmly comic Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

(Fig 4) and the large, masochistic Beheading of Saint John the

Baptist by the French Symbolist, Puvis de Chavannes (Fig 1).

It's interesting to consider these thirty-nine paintings as a

group. Moore gleely anticipated Irish reactions to the French taste

for flesh, from Eva Gonzales' bare arms to de Chavannes' swoon

ing La Toilette. And if Gerome (represented by an almost sneering,

foppish portrait (Fig 2) favoured a sumptuous Orientalism, what

of the stunning, now anonymous academic nude, A Black Woman

(Fig 8)? Lane may have intended others as crowd-pleasers, but if

sentimental, they are exquisite: Maris' Girl feeding a Bird in a Cage

(Fig 7) c. 1867; or Madrazo Y Garreta's Portrait of a Lady (Fig 6).

Some artists are little-known now, although the great Fantin

Latour, fetches millions; and last year, the Philadelphia Museum

rehabilitiated the eccentric Italian portraitist, Antonio Mancini.

Mancini (whom Sargent declared the greatest living painter)

depicted Lane enthroned in a mist of flowers and drapes, with a

little putto beside him, fidgeting at some unguessable task (Fig 3).

These days, the Hugh Lane Gallery partly straddles the roles

of both NGI and IMMA since the latter arrived in 1991, the

year Dawson took over in Parnell Square with, according to her

self, 'no mandate or infrastructure'. The three institutions col

laborate on conservation, intergallery loans and exhibition

schedules; yet have to compete for public funding. Dublin City

Gallery is not classified as a national cultural institution and so

does not qualify for tax-credit donations under Section 1003.

But Dawson managed to get exceptional ministerial approval for

C6.3m worth of donations: six unfinished Bacon paintings (val

ued at f4m); Philip Guston's grimly humorous Outskirts (a

record e 1.8m), and Ellsworth Kelly's Black Relief over Yellow and

Orange (CO.5m). Regrettably, the gallery's annual acquisitions

budget from Dublin City Council is a mere t35,000, denying it

power to build on its collection in a significant way. Dawson

styles the collection 'a hybrid', built over a century by patrons;

the Contemporary Irish Arts Society, and the Friends of the

National Collections of Ireland (who donated 150 works, from

Patrick Hennessy to Henry Moore and Joseph Albers). Like

Dawson's own tastes, it is wide-ranging, with many fine exam

ples of Irish artists, although as at IMMA, there remain many

significant historical gaps.

It's interesting how Dawson hangs, say, Brian Maguire and Elizabeth Magill amongst major international works. Recent Irish acquisitions include pieces by Sean Shanahan, Gerard Byrne, Paul Seawright, Jaki Irvine and the late Noel Sheridan.

76 |IRISH ARTS REVIEW SUMMER 2008



Dawson is now fund-raising to acquire work by recent exhibitors

Tacita Dean, Ellen Gallagher and Adam Chodzko. One initia

tive is the centenary set of prints by seventeen artists (le Brocquy,

Anne Madden, Kathy Prendergast, Willie Doherty, etc), avail able from September.

The new extension features world-class rooms, especially the sky-lit cube, a high altar for monumental art which, bafflingly,

will house only Sean Scully, to reward the artist's donation of

eight paintings. Dawson sees it 'as a fixed space where people

can come to experience the artist's work, like the Rothko Chapel.'

But although the room was designed with Scully's paintings in

mind, this is no fixed installation, but rather a flexible exhibition

space, in which nine Scully paintings will 'rotate', four at any

one time, for the next fifty years. While Scully has certainly

earned his stripes abroad, one has to query the judgement of

dedicating the climactic room of a major public gallery to a sin

gle artist, to the detriment of all others.

Another achievement of Dawson's directorship - after decades with no in-house conservator - is the creation of a con

servation department under Joanna Shepherd, which has been

working with London to revive Lane's paintings from a century

of yellowing varnish, aerial grime and earlier restoration efforts.

Historically, the gallery's visitor numbers have been poor, although attendances have more than doubled since the new

wing opened (167,000 last year), and should rise again once the

new streets, squares and megastores of the vaunted Carlton cin

ema development arrive in 2013.

Meanwhile, 2009 promises the Bacon centenary, with Bacon exhibited alongside Willem De Kooning under the rubric 'Waging

War on the Figure'. Also coming is the British-Nigerian Turner

nominee, Yinka Shonibare, while distinguished Irish artists Barrie Cooke, Basil Blackshaw and Patrick Graham will jostle alongside

Grace Weir, Gary Phelan and Paul Doran. A collaboration with

IMMA over James Coleman is also in preparation.

Besides the Bacon reliquary, Dawson's main legacy remains

persuading a reluctant Dublin City Council to build the new

gallery wing. Dublin City Council has now proudly rebranded

the gallery, and even allowed Dawson to curate O'Connell

Street, although there seems to be little public discussion about

how it will function as a gallery for Dublin into the future; or its

ongoing revenue needs. While Hugh Lane (who thought

Picasso's work 'rubbish' and Gauguin's 'barbaric') might have

reservations if he saw what hangs there today, he could surely be

convinced to burning vindication at the city-centre gallery

which still bears his name.E

MIC MORONEY is a journalist and critic who has written extensively about the

visual arts.

'Hugh Lane Centenary', Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

26 June - 14 September 2008.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Hugh Lane staff, Anne Kelly, Mary Wynne at the National Gallery Ireland; Christopher Rioponelle at the National Gallery England.

'Is it not better to leave the pictures where they belong and where they are valued, and to leave the Irish with their grievance, which they enjoyT

1 (Overleaf) Puvis DE CHAVANNES

(1824-1898) The

Beheading of St John

the Baptist c.1869 oil

on canvas 240 x

316.2cm Sir Hugh

Lane Bequest 1917 on

loan from the National

Gallery London

2 (Overleaf) JEAN-LEON

GEROME (1824-1904)

Portrait of Armand

Gerome 1848 oil on

canvas 50.2 x 43.8cm

Sir Hugh Lane Bequest

1917 On Loan from

the National Gallery

London

3 (Overleaf) ANTONIO

MANCINI (1852-1930)

Portrait of Hugh Lane

oil on canvas 226.1 x

116.8cm Dublin City

Gallery The Hugh Lane

4 HONORE VICTORIN

DAUMIER (1808 -1879)

Don Quixote and

Sancho Panza c. 1855

oil on oak 40.3 x

64.1cm Sir Hugh Lane

Bequest 1917 on loan

from the National

Gallery London

5 JEAN-DtsIRE-GusTAvE

COURBET (1819-1877)

The Diligence in the

Snow 1860 oil on

canvas 137.2 x

199.1cm Sir Hugh

Lane Bequest 1917 on

loan from the National

Gallery, London since

1979

6 RAIMUNDO DE

MADRAZO Y GARRETA

(1841-1920) Portrait of

a Lady 1885-95 oil on

canvas 49.5 x 40cm

Sir Hugh Lane Bequest 1917 On Loan from

the National Gallery London since 1979

7 JACOB MARIS (1837

1899) A Girl Feeding a

Bird in a Cage c.1867

oil on wood 32.6 x

20.8cm Sir Hugh Lane

Bequest 1917 On Loan

from the National

Gallery, London since

1979

8 FRENCH SCHOOL A

Black Woman 19th

century oil on canvas

81.3 x 66.7cm Sir Hugh Lane Bequest

1917 on loan from the National Gallery

London since 1979

1 Hugh Lane 1875-1895, Robert O'Byrne, Lilliput Press, Dublin 2000.

2 Seventy Years Young -. Memories of Elizabeth, Countess of Fingall, p264, London 1937; reprinted Dublin 1991; cited in Roy Foster's essay,

' A Family

Affair', upcoming Hugh Lane centenary catalogue. 3 'A British-Irish Cultural Conflict Revisited' Anne Kelly, Journal of the History of

Collections 2004, Vol 16 (No. 1) pp 89-110, Oxford University Press. 4 cited in O'Byrne, p240.

SUMMER 2008 IRISH ARTS REVIEW | 7



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Impressions from Hugh Lane