Home > National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art gallery in London, located on the north side of Trafalgar Square, in a building designed by William Wilkins. It holds part of the National Collection, particularly Western European art from 1250 to 1900. Some British art is included, but the National Collection of British art from this period is mainly in Tate Britain. The collection of 2300 paintings belongs to the British public, and entry to the main collection is free, though there are charges for entry to special exhibitions. (There is however a suggested minimum voluntary donation, paradoxically advertised as helping to keep the Gallery free of charge.)Artists whose work is hung in the National Gallery include:
- Leonardo da Vinci (The Virgin on the Rocks, Cartoon of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist)
- Rembrandt van Rijn (Belshazzar's Feast, two self portraits)
- Vincent van Gogh ( Sunflowers)
- Titian (Bacchus and Ariadne)
- Sandro Botticelli (Venus and Mars)
- Jan van EyckJan van Eyck ( 1385? 1441) was a 15th century painter and one of the first to popularize oil paint. Jan belonged to the Van Eyck family of painters and was a younger brother of Hubert van Eyck. The Arnolfini Portrait a portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and w ( The Arnolfini PortraitThe Arnolfini Portrait full title Portrait of Giovanni (?) Arnolfini and his Wife is a 1434 painting by Jan van Eyck. This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife Giovanna Cenami, but is not intended as a record of their wedding.)
- Willem DrostWillem Drost ( 1633 1659) was a Dutch Baroque painter and printmaker. He was born in what was then known as the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Although he lived and painted at a time when Dutch artists had their greatest impact on the development of (Portrait of a Young Woman with her Hands Folded on a Book)
- Claude MonetOscar-Claude Monet ( November 14, 1840 December 5, 1926), French impressionist painter. Claude Monet Monet was born in Paris, France. His family moved to Le Havre in Normandy when he was six. His father wanted him to go into the family grocery store busin (The Water-Lily Pond, The Thames Below Westminster)
- Pierre-Auguste RenoirPierre-Auguste Renoir ( February 25, 1841 December 3, 1919) was a preeminent French painter. Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France, the child of a working class family. As a boy, he worked in a porcelain factory where his interes (The Umbrellas, Boating on the Seine)
- Diego Velasquez (The "Rokeby Venus")
- John ConstableJohn Constable ( June 11, 1776 March 31, 1837) was born in East Bergholt, a village on the River Stour in Suffolk, England. He became a great landscape painter. The area of Dedham Vale in Suffolk is known as 'Constable Country'. Flatford Mill, the subject (The Hay Wain)
- William HogarthWilliam Hogarth ( November 10, 1697 October 26, 1764) was a major British painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. His work ranged from excellent realistic portraiture to (Marriage A-la-Mode)
- J.M.W. Turner (The Fighting Temeraire)
- Joseph Wright (An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, Mr and Mrs Thomas Coltman)
The National Gallery at night, illuminated for an event to promote the launch of a Pepsi commercial
The collection was established in 1824, when the art collection of John Julius Angerstein was bought for the nation. The gallery was built in the 1830s by architect William Wilkins; it has been expanded four times, most recently with the Sainsbury Wing in 1991 which houses the Gallery's Early Renaissance paintings. This Wing houses works by Van Eyck, Piero della Francesca, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, as well as the Wilton Diptych.
The National Portrait Gallery has an adjoining site on Charing Cross Road.
Nearest London Underground stations:
