National Gallery
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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London's National Gallery, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900Template:Ref label in its home on Trafalgar Square. The collection belongs to the British public and entry to the main collection is free, although there are charges for entry to special exhibitions.
The National Gallery's beginnings were modest; unlike comparable galleries such as the Louvre in Paris or the Museo del Prado in Madrid, it was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 36 paintings from the banker John Julius Angerstein in 1824. After that initial purchase the Gallery has been shaped mainly by its early directors, notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which comprise two thirds of the collection. The resulting collection is small compared with the national galleries of continental Europe, but has a high concentration of important works across a broad art-historical scope, from the Early Renaissance to Post-impressionism, with relatively few weak areas.
The present building, on the northern side of Trafalgar Square, is the third to house the Gallery, and like its predecessors it has often been deemed inadequate. The façade by William Wilkins is the only part of his original building of 1832–8 that remains essentially unchanged, as the structure as a whole has been altered and expanded in a piecemeal manner throughout its history. Notable additions have been made by E. M. Barry and Robert Venturi. The current Director of the National Gallery is Nicholas Penny.
Collection highlights
- English or French Medieval
- The Wilton Diptych
- Paolo Uccello
- The Battle of San Romano
- Piero della Francesca
- The Baptism of Christ
- Jan van Eyck
- The Arnolfini Portrait
- Sandro Botticelli
- Venus and Mars
- Leonardo da Vinci
- The Virgin of the Rocks, The Burlington House Cartoon
- Michelangelo
- The Entombment, The Manchester Madonna
- Raphael
- Portrait of Pope Julius II, The Madonna of the Pinks, The Mond Crucifixion
- Titian
- Bacchus and Ariadne, The Death of Actaeon
- Hans Holbein the Younger
- The Ambassadors
- Agnolo Bronzino
- Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time
- Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
- Boy Bitten by a Lizard, Supper at Emmaus, Salome with the Head of John the Baptist
- Peter Paul Rubens
- Le Chapeau de Paille, The Judgement of Paris (two versions), Landscape with Het Steen
- Nicolas Poussin
- A Bacchanalian Revel Before a Term, Landscape with a Man Killed by a Snake
- Diego Velázquez
- The Rokeby Venus
- Anthony van Dyck
- Equestrian Portrait of Charles I
- Rembrandt
- Belshazzar's Feast, two self-portraits
- Salvator Rosa
- Self-Portrait
- Johannes Vermeer
- Lady Standing at a Virginal, Lady Seated at a Virginal
- Canaletto
- A Regatta on the Grand Canal, The Stonemason's Yard
- William Hogarth
- Marriage à-la-Mode
- George Stubbs
- Whistlejacket
- Thomas Gainsborough
- Mr and Mrs Andrews
- Joseph Wright of Derby
- An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
- J. M. W. Turner
- The Fighting Temeraire, Rain, Steam and Speed
- John Constable
- The Hay Wain
- Paul Cézanne
- Les Grandes Baigneuses
- Claude Monet
- The Water-Lily Pond, The Thames Below Westminster
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- The Umbrellas, Boating on the Seine
- Georges Seurat
- Bathers at Asnières
- Vincent van Gogh
- Sunflowers, Van Gogh's Chair, A Wheatfield, with Cypresses