The National Gallery in London: An Impressive Collection of Paintings in the Western European Tradition
This is part of a continuing series of photographs from my 21-day, three country, five city
winter vacation to Europe with my ladyfriend Serena.
Today’s post continues our tour of London with a visit to the National Gallery
The National Gallery
Being the art museum nerds we are, we decided to add a visit to London’s National Gallery after spending a day at the Tate Modern. The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London. Founded in 1824, it is home to the national collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the 13th to the 19th centuries.
Unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, The National Gallery was not formed by nationalizing an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein, a Russian-born British businessman and art collector who worked an underwriter for Lloyd’s of London, in 1824.
The present building, the third site to house the National Gallery, was designed by English architect William Wilkins. Building began in 1832 and it opened to the public in 1838. Wilkins’s building, however, was often criticized for the perceived weaknesses of its design and for its lack of space; the latter problem led to the establishment of the Tate Gallery for British art in 1897.
The National Gallery recently announced plans for a £375 million expansion project, provisionally titled ‘Project Domani’. The initiative includes the construction of a new wing behind the existing Sainsbury Wing and a policy change allowing the acquisition of works created after 1900 (yay!). The expansion is scheduled to open in the early 2030s. Here are a few select works…
“Rokeby Venus (La Venus del Espejo)” (1647-1651) by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. The Rokeby Venus is the only surviving female nude by Velázquez. Nudes were extremely rare in seventeenth-century Spanish art, which was policed actively by members of the Spanish Inquisition.
“An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” is a 1768 oil-on-canvas painting English painter by Joseph Wright. The painting depicts a natural philosopher, a forerunner of the modern scientist, recreating one of Robert Boyle’s air pump experiments, in which a bird is deprived of air, before a group of onlookers.
“Motherhood (La Maternité)” by acclaimed Spanish artist Pablo Picasso draws a crowd at the Gallery. It was painted around 1901–1904, during Picasso’s “Blue Period”, which was characterized by mournful tones and themes of human suffering.
The image is the famous 1833 oil painting by French painter Paul Delaroche titled “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey”. It depicts the moments just before the execution of the “Nine Days’ Queen” of England. Lady Jane Grey, one of the most learned young women of her day, was a great-grandniece of King Henry VIII who reigned as queen for only nine days in 1553 before being deposed by her maternal grandmother Mary Tudor. She was executed for high treason at the Tower of London in 1554 at the age of 17.
“Portrait of Jacobus Blauw” (1795) by French artist Jacques-Louis David could easily be renamed “Portrait of a Young Christopher Walken in an Alternate Universe”, no?
“Bathers at Asnières” (1884) by French painter Georges Seurat (1859–1891), the founder of the 19th-century Neo-Impressionist movement.
Flemish painter Jan van Eyck’s renowned 1434 oil painting, the “Arnolfini Portrait”. It is a double portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini, a wealthy Italian merchant, and his wife Costanza Trenta in their Bruges home. Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck is credited with originating a style of painting characterised by minutely realistic depictions of surface effects and natural light. This was made possible by using an oil medium, which allowed the building up of paint in translucent layers, or glazes.
“The Supper at Emmaus” (1601) by controversial and influential Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (known mononymously as Caravaggio), depicts the moment when the resurrected but incognito Jesus reveals himself to two of his disciples (presumed to be Luke and Cleopas) in the town of Emmaus, only to soon vanish from their sight (Gospel of Luke 24: 30–31).
The National Gallery currently has over 2,300 works on display and is free to visit (donations are welcome). There is a charge for some exhibitions. It is open daily 10am–6pm and Friday until 9pm. Enjoy the full gallery…
