Sir John Lavery: John E. Redmond, MP, 1916

Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane is marking the centenary of the 1912 introduction of the Third Home Rule Bill to the British Parliament with the exhibition Revolutionary States: Home Rule and Modern Ireland, exploring the political and cultural context of the time.

The exhibition, which runs from May 24th to October 21st, 2012, presents portraits from the gallery’s collection, which includes many of the key personalities who worked both in support of and in opposition to Home Rule. Sir John Lavery’s paintings of the nationalist MP John Redmond and the unionist MP Edward Carson are central to the exhibition.

Image: This portrait of John Redmond (1856-1918) was painted by Lavery at the height of Redmond's success as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party with the passage of the Home Rule Bill prior to the outbreak of the first World War.

The portrait and its companion piece of the Ulster Unionist leader Carson were sold by Lavery on the condition that they would stay together and be given to a Dublin Gallery. When Redmond heard of Lavery's plan he said: 'I have always had an idea that Carson and I might some day be hanged side-by-side in Dublin'. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

Sir John Lavery: Sir Edward Carson, MP, 1916

As Hugh Lane collected artworks for a new Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin – which opened in 1908 – he commissioned from Sir William Orpen and John Butler Yeats a series of portraits of key figures in Irish political and cultural life.

Orpen’s portraits include political figures such as Sir Horace Plunkett, pioneer of agricultural co-operation, Michael Davitt, founder of The Land League, Lord MacDonnell, Under-Secretary for Ireland 1902-8, and Augustine Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland 1907-16. Yeats’s portraits include the playwright J.M. Synge and the Gaelic League founder Douglas Hyde.

A fully illustrated catalogue with essays by R.F. Foster, Michael Laffan, P.J. Matthews, Barbara Dawson, Margarita Cappock and Logan Sisley will accompany the exhibition.

Image: Sir Edward Carson (1845-1935), Unionist leader (1910-1921), was the first portrait in Lavery's Irish collection. Carson thought that Redmond's portrait was better than his and knowing that Lavery was a Belfast Catholic remarked: 'It's easy to see which side you're on.' The pair of paintings of Carson and Redmond were donated to The Hugh Lane by Lieut-Col. Hutcheson in 1917, according to Lavery's wishes. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

George Russell (AE): The Log Carriers, c. 1904

This painting by George Russell (1867-1935), the Irish nationalist, poet, mystical writer and artist known as AE, represents two women in long dresses walk towards the viewer across a shelly beach, carrying a long log on their shoulders.

The colour of the womens' dresses matches their faces, making them look like statues. In the background is a sky covered with white and grey blue clouds. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

John Butler Yeats: John Millington Synge, c. 1905

"And here's John Synge himself that rooted man, 'Forgetting human words,' a grave deep face".

The Municipal Gallery Revisited by William Butler Yeats ‑ So wrote William Butler Yeats about his friend and fellow writer John Millington Synge (1871-1909). This portrait was commissioned by Hugh Lane in 1901.

In it John Butler Yeats (1839-1922) captures the shy unobtrusive nature of the playwright. It was painted c. 1905, just four years before the writer's untimely death. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

François-Auguste-René Rodin: George Bernard Shaw, 1906

The bust of George Bernard Shaw (1856 –1950) was one of many busts of prominent contemporaries made by Rodin (1840-1917) at the later, established stage of his career. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

Sarah Cecilia Harrison: Mr and Mrs Thomas Haslam, 1908

Thomas Haslam and wife Anna (82 and 79 respectively at the time, when the painting was executed) were the founding members and prominent activists of the Dublin Women's Suffrage Association (DWSA). Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

Patrick Joseph Tuohy: Entry to Battle, c. 1919

This drawing by Patrick Joseph Touhy (1894-1930) accompanied Standish O’Grady’s text: 'The noble steed flew along, nor heeded at all the scourge of the charioteer'. Two warriors in a chariot: Cuchulain brandishing a shield and spear, with sword in scabbard, while his companion drives the chariot.

O’Grady (1846–1928) was a historian and novelist who popularised Gaelic myth. Often described as a ‘Fenian unionist’, he was highly admired by nationalists. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

Boleslaw von Szankowski: Countess Constance Markievicz, 1901

Countess Constance Markievicz (née Gore-Booth; 1868 –1927) was a gifted artist with a strong interest in politics.

She studied at the Slade School of Art in London and in the Académie Julian in Paris, where she met her husband Count Casimir Markiewicz. She was first involved in the suffragist movement and later became a strong proponent of the nationalist movement.

She was the first woman to win a seat in British House of Common (which she declined) and the first representative of her sex to ever hold a cabinet position. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

Sarah Cecilia Harrison: Portrait of the Artist, 1900

Sarah Cecilia Harrison (1863-1941) was an Irish artist and member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, renowned for her portraits. Also, she was the first woman to serve on Dublin City Council.

She strongly supported Hugh Lane’s proposal for the Municipal Gallery of Art in Dublin and after his death on Lusitania, claimed they had been engaged to be married. This news largely contributed to her social boycott and the decline of her political career. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

Sir William Orpen: Portrait of the Artist, c.1906

Throughout his life Orpen was keenly interested in questions of identity and painted a remarkable series of self-portraits in which parody is often the keynote.

He studied his own image many times, occasionally approaching caricature in his self-mocking studies of his own features. He had a remarkable facility for depicting textures and mirrors and his Reflections: China and Japan in this Collection is a virtuoso piece.

Here Orpen uses to great effect the motifs of the mirror and a frame within a frame. The artists' materials on the mantelpiece also appear to extend beyond the picture into our own space. The statue of Venus also appears in his painting Homage to Manet (1909) which was painted in the artist's London home. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

Robert Gregory: Coole Lake, c. 1914

This landscape painting was painted around the same period in which Jack B. Yeats published Life in the West of Ireland and Grace and Paul Henry moved to Achill Island where they created iconic paintings of the west. It fits neatly into the revival of the Irish country side as an inspiration for artists. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

Mary Grant: Charles Stewart Parnell, 1892

The bust of Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891), nationalist leader and a strong advocate of the Home Rule, was created a year after his death by Mary Grant (1831-1908), one of few female sculptors working professionally in Britain in the 19th century.

The bust can be also found on display in National Portrait Gallery in London. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

Sir John Lavery: Sutton Courtenay, 1917

Sutton Courtenay, painted in the summer of 1917, was the location of British prime minister Herbert Asquith’s country residence. The sunny bliss of this little wharf on the Thames feels far removed from the horrors of the first World War. Image: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane