Proposed Bridge Gallery, near front view

Artist William Walcot (1874 - 1943)

Architect Edwin Lutyens (1869 - 1944)

Datec. 1912

MediumWatercolour on paper

Dimensions51 x 81.2 cm

ClassificationsWatercolours

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Lane Bequest, 1913.

Object number200

DescriptionLutyens suggested replacing the metal bridge now known as the Ha’penny Bridge with a Ponte Vecchio-style gallery spanning the River Liffey when the proposal for a gallery located in St Stephen’s Green was rejected. The cost of the bridge gallery was estimated at £45,000 and Lane was so enthusiastic about the design that he pledged to fund any expenditure over this amount. However, the whole idea was considered as an unwarranted extravagance by William Martin Murphy and he declared it would prevent fresh sea air circulating in the slums. The proposal was narrowly defeated in a vote by Dublin city councillors in 1913. The ongoing attempt at finding a suitable location for the gallery was lampooned in cartoons published in The Herald, a paper controlled by William Martin Murphy, with one cartoon suggesting the top of Nelson’s Pillar as a possibility. Here the proposed Gallery is shown majestically taking its place alongside a busy quay crowded with trams, horses and carts and people going about their daily lives. (JO'D)

This is a watercolour of the proposed Modern Art Gallery for Dublin. This view is one of three views of the proposed gallery across the River Liffey (see Object Numbers 201 and 202). The view shows the bridge section connecting the two parts of the gallery in profile. The viewer is standing on Bachelor's Walk on the North side of the Liffey. On the right in the foreground are number of horses and carts, a tram and a man walking along the quay wall. There is a green street lamp on the extreme right. On the South side of the river, the only prominent and discernible building is Merchant's Arch that faces the Southern façade of the gallery. The gallery building itself has two façades, one on the North side of the Liffey and the other on the South. The architecture style of the proposed gallery is neoclassical: leaning more towards the Greek archetype than the Roman. The bridge section is colonnaded with Ionic columns. At the ends of the two flanking sections is a niche framed with Ionic columns and a triangular pediment. On the roof at each end of the flanking sections is a statue on a two-tiered pedestal.

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