New wing of National Gallery to stage major Impressionist show

Dublin will play host to some of the biggest names in the history of art early next year when the National Gallery finally unveils its new Millennium wing.

Works from Monet, Manet, Cezanne, and Van Gogh are among those lined up to help celebrate the opening, in what the gallery says will be the first major Impressionist exhibition in Ireland.

The paintings are being loaned for the occasion by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which boasts one of the best collections of Impressionists outside of France.

The Dublin show, which will also include works by Gauguin, Renoir and Pissarro, will open at the end of January and run for 12 weeks. The exhibition is described by the gallery as a "rich survey of French landscape painting from the time of its great rise to prominence from the 1850s through to 1910".

It begins by tracing the roots of Impressionist landscape in the art of Camille Corot and the Barbizon School and progresses to the post-Impressionist landscapes of Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh.

The Minister for the Arts, Ms de Valera, announced the exhibition in Boston last night, following a tour of the museum.

"I am very pleased that these artworks were secured for showcasing in the National gallery's new Millennium wing, which has been designed and constructed to the highest international standards and will allow the gallery to house many future exhibitions of this scale and significance," she said.

Ms Fionnuala Croke, the gallery's head of exhibitions, said it would be the first major Impressionist exhibition to come to Ireland.

The opening of the new wing, which was due in the autumn, has been postponed because of construction delays.

Ms Valerie Keogh, spokeswoman for the gallery, said the Boston museum had been "very flexible and co-operative" in facilitating the postponement of the exhibition's opening here.

The Millennium wing will be 4,000 m sq and will include a suite of galleries, a centre for the study of Irish art, a Yeats archive, a multi-media facility and an audiovisual room.