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National Gallery, art museum in London that houses Great Britain’s national collection of European paintings. It is located on the north side of Trafalgar Square, Westminster.
Founding and expansions
The National Gallery was founded in 1824 when the British government bought a collection of 38 paintings from the estate of the merchant John Julius Angerstein to develop a new national collection “for the enjoyment and education of all.” The collection was first exhibited that year in Angerstein’s house at 100 Pall Mall, but in 1831 British Parliament resolved to construct a new building in Trafalgar Square.
(Read Sister Wendy’s Britannica essay on art appreciation.)
The new Neoclassical structure, designed by the Greek Revival architect William Wilkins, opened to the public in 1838. It has been enlarged on several occasions, including in 1860, 1876, 1886, 1975, and 1991, with the American architect Robert Venturi designing the most recent extension. Until the opening of the Tate Gallery in 1897, modern British art was also displayed at the National Gallery. Since then the museum has largely limited its collection to art created before 1900. In 2025, however, it announced that it would start collecting 20th-century artwork and planned to show it in a new wing set to open in the 2030s.
Notable artworks
(Read Glenn Lowry’s Britannica essay on “Art Museums & Their Digital Future.”)
Quick Facts
- Date:
- 1824 – present
The collection comprises some 2,600 works and is regarded by many as the most representative sampling of European painting in the world. It has the most comprehensive collection of Italian Renaissance paintings outside Italy, with works by most of the great Florentine and Venetian masters of that period. There are also impressive holdings of works by various British, Dutch, French, Spanish, and Flemish painters from the 15th to the 19th century. Among the artists represented are Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Artemisia Gentileschi, Johannes Vermeer, and Peter Paul Rubens. The museum’s small collection of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, including those by Berthe Morisot and Vincent van Gogh is notable, and most of the works are exhibited.
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