The new exhibition at Dublin's Hugh Lane Gallery should carry a parental discretion warning.
Younger children can probably view it safely enough. But impressionable teenagers could be seriously damaged by the sight of Francis Bacon's reconstructed London studio, and particularly its subliminal message that you do not have to tidy your room to be a success.
The studio is a mess, to put it mildly. Its 4 x 8 metre space contains more clutter than a crack team of first-year university students could ever dream of creating. This ranges from some 2,000 samples of painting material; slashed canvasses; old newspapers and articles of clothing to such artistic accessories as a cardboard box, formerly the home of a crate of VAT 69 Scotch whisky.
One of the few artist's conveniences not found amid the chaos is a palette. But then, Bacon didn't need one. When mixing paint, he preferred to use the walls, both sides of the studio door, and anything else that was handy. It doesn't say so in the gallery programme, but one has to presume he wasn't renting.
The exhibition opens to the public today, three years after the dramatic news that the studio's contents had been donated to Dublin by the artist's partner and heir, John Edwards.
The intervening period has seen the completion of an epic task, beginning with the making of a 360-degree photographic record of the flat in Reece Mews, London, and the cataloguing of its more than 7,000 items, and ending with the meticulous recreation of the whole mess in a specially designed space in the Parnell Square gallery.
Even the original dust was preserved, removed in bags and sprinkled back on the exhibits before the room was resealed.
Gallery visitors can view the interior through the glassed-off door and two windows. To complete the voyeur experience, the steep stairway to the first-floor flat has also been recreated, sunk in the floor, under glass. The project cost £1.5 million, a burden shared by Dublin Corporation, the Department of the Arts, the Millennium Commission, and the Ireland Funds.
Mr Edwards joined Lord Mayor Maurice Ahern and others to admire the finished work on Monday. But, notoriously shy, he confined himself to saying he thought Bacon would have "enjoyed this". Born in Dublin in 1909, the painter left Ireland in 1925 and never returned, later joking, with prescience, that he could only go back after his death.
Nine years after the last-mentioned event, the artist's archive, complemented by a collection of paintings on long-term loan, is considered the most important addition to the Hugh Lane since its establishment in 1908. Admission to the gallery is free, but there will be a charge for the exhibition: £6 for adults, £3 concessions and under 12s free.
Last night, Mr Edwards was presented with a Lord Mayor's award in recognition of his generosity to the city. On Saturday, RTE's Network 2 screens a documentary on Bacon, which includes an account of the studio's relocation.