A Portrait of Hugh Lane: aesthete, collector, dealer, philanthropist
“I am Lady Gregory’s nephew and I must be doing something for Ireland,”
Hugh Lane
Citizen Lane is an innovative mix of documentary and drama that delivers a vivid and compelling portrait of Hugh Lane, one of the most fascinating and yet enigmatic figures in modern Irish history.
A man of multiple contradictions, by turns infuriatingly parsimonious or extraordinarily generous, a professed nationalist and a knight of the realm; a monumental snob and a fearless campaigner for access to the arts.
The film, directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan with the drama written by Mark O’Halloran and starring Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Hugh Lane, realises this unique and curious blend of attributes of this most complex of characters.
Cast also includes Michael Gambon (Lord Ardilaun), Marty Rea (William Orpen), Derbhle Crotty (Lady Augusta Gregory), Bosco Hogan (Reverend James Lane), Leslie Conroy (Sarah Cecilia Harrison), Gemma-Leah Devereux (Ruth Shine), Bary McGovern (William Martin Murphy), Ned Dennehy (George Moore), Peter Campion (W.B. Yeats), Gertrude Montgomery (Maud Gonne) and Frank Prendergast (John Millington Synge).
The drama is intercut with interviews from contemporary documentary contributors such as Professors Roy Foster and Paul Rouse and Art Historian Morna O’Neill, who offer a narrative richly illustrated by the paintings of Lane’s collection with a twist in its tale in the long running campaign to recover for Ireland Lane’s Bequest of 39 great Impressionist paintings, Monet, Renoir and Manet among them, left unwittingly to the National Gallery London.
Full production credits – HERE