Papers of the Hugh Lane estate

Repository: National Gallery of Ireland

Identity Statement

TitlePapers of the Hugh Lane estate
Archive ReferenceIE NGI/LAN
Web Link to this Entryhttps://iar.ie/archive/papers-of-the-hugh-lane-estate
Creation Dates1902-1975
Level of DescriptionFonds
Extent Medium4 boxes, paper textual documents

Context

Creator(s): National Gallery of Ireland

  • Administrative History ↴

    Hugh Lane was born in county Cork in 1875 and grew up in England. As a young man he developed an interest in art, and through his aunt, lady Augusta Gregory, was apprenticed to Martin Colnaghi, a London art dealer. After a year or so with Colnaghi, Lane began to work as an independent art dealer. He opened his own premises in Pall Mall Place in 1898. Through frequent visits to Ireland, where most of his family resided, Lane remained in close contact with lady Augusta Gregory and became interested in contemporary Irish art. He also began to collect Impressionist art. Lane devoted a great deal of his time and energy to the promotion of Irish art; he also conceived the idea of creating a gallery of modern art in Dublin. In 1906 Lane offered to present a group of modern paintings to the proposed new gallery, provided a suitable premises was found. Eventually the gallery was opened in 1908 at 17 Harcourt street, Dublin, under the care of Dublin corporation, with Lane as honorary director. From 1912 Lane began to campaign for a purpose-built gallery to replace 17 Harcourt street and threatened to remove his conditional gift of thirty-nine paintings (which also came to be known as the French pictures) unless the new building was forthcoming. Various schemes for a new building were advanced but none was adopted, and Lane became deeply frustrated by what he perceived as the lack of public support for the new gallery. In 1913 Lane offered to loan his conditional paintings to the National Gallery in London, an offer which was accepted; in October 1913 he made a new will in which he bequeathed the conditional paintings to the National Gallery in London. The bulk of Lane’s estate was bequeathed to the National Gallery of Ireland ‘to be invested and the income to be spent on buying pictures of deceased painters of established merit.’ The fund thus established (the Lane Fund) became an important source of funding for the National Gallery of Ireland. To the Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin (known as the Municipal Gallery) Lane bequeathed paintings which were on loan to Belfast Art Gallery and ‘any modern paintings of merit that I possess’. A member of the board of the National Gallery of Ireland since 1903, Lane was knighted in 1909 for services to art, and appointed director of the National Gallery of Ireland in 1914. In 1915 Lane sailed to New York; before leaving he wrote a codicil to his will in which he reversed the clause in his 1913 will leaving the conditional paintings to the National Gallery in London. Instead, these works were to be given to the city of Dublin ‘providing a suitable building is provided for them within five years of my death.’ This codicil was not witnessed but was signed or initialed by Lane in three places. On 7 May 1915, returning from New York on the RMS Lusitania, Lane, along with almost 1,200 others was drowned when the ship was sunk by a German torpedo off the coast of Cork. The ensuing controversy over Lane’s un-witnessed codicil to his will continued for decades. Lane was succeeded as director of the National Gallery of Ireland by Walter Strickland, who held the post until the appointment of captain Robert Langton Douglas in 1916.
  • Archival History ↴

    Institutional Archives
  • Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

    Official Transfer

Content & Structure

  • Scope & Content: National Gallery of Ireland ↴

    1. The Municipal gallery; 2. The disputed pictures of the codicil to Hugh Lane’s will. 3. The Red Cross bequest; 4. The Hugh Lane fund; 5. Administration of the Hugh Lane estate; 6. Augusta Ruth Shine; 7. Newspaper cuttings & catalogue; 8. Miscellaneous late correspondence.

    The material relates in the main to the administration of the Lane estate: the terms of Lane’s will and the un-witnessed codicil ensured that the settling of his estate took many years and engendered some controversy. Included in this material is Lane’s own account book of pictures purchased in the period 1902-1915. Several topics appear in the papers: the legacy to the Municipal Gallery; the efforts by the Municipal Gallery and other interested parties to obtain the return of the thirty nine conditional paintings to Dublin; the legacy to the National Gallery of Ireland which engendered discussion as to whether some of the paintings bequeathed to it by sir Hugh Lane should be retained or whether all should be sold and the proceeds invested. Includes a significant quantity of material relating to the Lane fund and its administration. In addition there are papers regarding the Red Cross bequest which related to a bid of £10,000 made by Lane to benefit the Red Cross, the money to be used to pay for a portrait to be painted by John Sargent. Material relating to Ruth Shine, Lane’s sister, including a court hearing in the 1940s arising from a claim by her on the Lane estate, is included.

    Papers from the 1970s include correspondence between doctor James White, director of the National Gallery of Ireland and various correspondents. Other items in the archive include a file of press cuttings, the majority, dating from 1905, concerning controversy over the authenticity of a work by Corot which the prince of Wales had presented to the proposed new gallery in Dublin.

  • Appraisal Destruction ↴

    All records retained
  • Accruals ↴

    None expected
  • Arrangement ↴

    1. The Municipal gallery; 2. The disputed pictures of the codicil to Hugh Lane’s will. 3. The Red Cross bequest; 4. The Hugh Lane fund; 5. Administration of the Hugh Lane estate; 6. Augusta Ruth Shine; 7. Newspaper cuttings & catalogue; 8. Miscellaneous late correspondence.

Conditions of Access & Use

Access Conditions Access by appointment and in accordance with NGI Library and Archive access policy.
Conditions Governing ReproductionMaterial may only be reproduced by permisssion of the archivist and in accordance with NGI Library and Archives reproductions policy.
Creation Dates1902-1975
Level of DescriptionFonds
Extent Medium4 boxes, paper textual documents
Material Language ScriptEnglish
Finding Aids IE/NGI/LAN descriptive list available in Reading Room. Archive Web Link →

Allied Materials

There are no Allied Materials

Descriptive Control Area

Archivist NoteDorothy Redmond
Rules/ConventionsISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description. 2nd edition. Ottowa: International Council on Archives, 2000.
Date of DescriptionsDec-11