Fine Arts

Gonzalès finally appreciated in her own right at the Hugh Lane Gallery

An exhibition at the Parnell Square gallery examines the work of Eva Gonzalès, who was not only a model for Édouard Manet but an artist of some renown herself

Barbara Dawson, director of Hugh Lane Gallery and Caroline Campbell, director of collections and research at the National Gallery, London. Picture: Naoise Culhane

Eva Gonzalès Is What Dublin Needs is the recently opened exhibition at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Parnell Square. The exhibition title comes from the writer and friend of Sir Hugh Lane, George Moore, who declared “Mademoiselle Gonzalès is what Dublin needs” after the portrait of Eva Gonzalès by Édouard Manet was acquired by Lane for the museum in 1906, causing much excitement.

The well-known painting, which forms part of the Sir Hugh Lane bequest, depicts ...