Hugh Lane Gallery

Hugh Lane founded the world's first known public gallery of modern art here in 1908. He died on the Lusitania in 1915, having added an unwitnessed codicil to his will leaving his French Impressionist paintings to Dublin rather than London - a dispute that ran for decades and is now settled by a rotation agreement with the National Gallery in London, so works by Renoir, Manet, Monet and Degas appear here in cycles. The other holding is unlike anything else: Francis Bacon's studio at 7 Reece Mews in South Kensington, donated by his heir in 1998 and moved to Dublin in its entirety - every one of the roughly seven thousand items catalogued in place, including slashed canvases, photographs, brushes and the layers of debris on the floor, then reassembled behind glass. There is also a Sean Scully gallery and a stained glass collection including Harry Clarke. Entry is free and it closes on Mondays.

What you actually see

• Bacon's studio - moved from London complete, around seven thousand items in place.
• The Lane bequest - Impressionist works rotating with London under the agreement.
• The stained glass - Harry Clarke among the collection.
• Charlemont House - the 1760s townhouse the gallery occupies.

When to go

Any season; indoors and free. Closed on Mondays. Two hours covers it. Which Lane pictures are present depends on the rotation cycle with London.

Honest expectations

Closed Mondays. The Impressionist works rotate, so specific paintings may be in London when you visit. The Bacon studio is viewed through glass from fixed points, which some find frustrating.

Nearby

The Garden of Remembrance is on the square; the Writers Museum and O'Connell Street are close.