THE OPENING in Dublin in 1908 of the world's oldest modern art gallery - named after its founder Hugh Lane - was celebrated in style last night.
Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane honoured its founder with a special exhibition programme, entitled Hugh Lane 100 Years. As the rain fell outside, masterpieces such as Renoir's Les Parapluies were unveiled and the weather seemed to be in perfect accord.
The centenary exhibition includes a collection of 39 paintings that have not been seen in Dublin since 1913. These are now on view alongside the rest of Lane's valuable collection.
Opening the exhibition, President Mary McAleese said: "The establishment of this gallery was . . . one of the most important cultural events in these islands and stands, even in these more prosperous times, as a testimony to the power of philanthropy.
"Hugh Lane's bequest, made at the age of 32, was an act of generosity that has grown in its reach every year since and it is, of course, exactly right that for the first time since 1913 . . . the entire Lane bequest is under one roof," she said.
A controversy, which arose following Lane's death in the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, meant that the ownership of the so-called 39 continental pictures, including paintings by Renoir, Monet and Pissarro, was disputed for many years. A signed codicil to his will left the pictures to Dublin, but this codicil was unwitnessed and the works have been shared with the National Gallery, London, since 1959.
Jessica O'Donnell, the gallery's acting head of collections, said Hugh Lane's "quick-witted tenacity" in buying the impressionist masterpieces, along with his tragic death, "in a way heightens the sense of loss when you come to realise how the paintings were to slip from Dublin's grasp".