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MODERN BRITISH PAINTING
For a guide to the best of
modern UK painters (1960-2000),
see Contemporary
British Painting.
WORLD'S BEST ART
For a list of the finest works of
painting and sculpture, by the
world's most famous artists, see:
Greatest Paintings Ever
Oils, watercolours, mixed media
from 1300-present.
Greatest Sculptures Ever
Works in stone, bronze, wood
from 33,000 BCE-present.
WORLDS TOP ARTISTS
For top creative practitioners, see:
Best Artists of All Time.
For the greatest view painters, see:
Best Landcape Artists.
For the greatest still life art, see:
Best Still Life Painters.
For the greatest portraitists
see: Best Portrait Artists.
For the greatest genre-painting, see:
Best Genre Painters.
For the top allegorical painting,
see: Best History Painters.
VISUAL ARTS OF ISLAM
For a list of the world's greatest
libraries and museum collections
of Muslim culture, see:
Museums of Islamic Art.
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National Art Collections Fund
At the turn of of the century the agricultural crisis forced many aristocratic
families to sell their paintings. Many of these paintings were ending
up in the United States, which prompted the foundation of the National
Art Collections Fund. The first purchase of the fund, on behalf of the
National Gallery, was Velazquez's Rokeby Venus in 1906. Other wealthy
donators helped to grow the galleries collection including the industrialist
Dr Ludwig Mond who gave 42 Italian renaissance paintings and Sir Hugh
Lane (who died on the Lusitania in 1915) who left 39 paintings in his
will. There was some controversary over the latter donation as he made
an unwitnessed amendment to his will before dying, that the works should
go to Ireland. It wasn't until 1959 that this dispute was settled and
the Hugh Lane collection is now on permanent loan to the Hugh Lane Gallery
in Dublin. In recent years there have been two major fund-raising campaigns.
In 2004, £35m was raised to buy Raphael’s Madonna of the
Pinks and, in 2008, £50m was raised to buy Titian's Diana
and Actaeon. The National Gallery is now largely priced out of the
market for major works by Old Masters and can only make acquisitions with
the help of public appeals.
Permanent Collection
The collection of the National Gallery
London can be divided into the following styles and periods of art.
Dutch School
The Dutch school features mainly Dutch Realist genre painting of the 17th
century, including paintings by Pieter de Hooch (1629-84), Rembrandt (1620-91),
Aelbert Cuyp (1620-91), Aernout van der Neer (1603-77), Jan Steen (1626–79)
and Johannes Vermeer (1632-75).
English School
The English School is most recognised by romantic painter John
Constable (1776-1837) - his painting The Hay Wain (1821) is
a national treasure.
The Gallery has 11 paintings by portrait and landscape painter Thomas
Gainsborough (1727-88) including his famous Mr and Mrs Andrews
(c.1750).
There are 8 paintings by artist, printmaker and cartoonist William
Hogarth (1697-1764) including his Marriage a la Mode: The Marriage
Settlement (c.1743).
There are also a number of fine paintings from other English artists such
as John Hoppner, Thomas Lawrence, Joshua
Reynolds, George Stubbs, Joseph Wright of Derby and Richard
Wilson., as well as the decorative artists/sculptors Alfred
Stevens and George
Frederick Watts.
Flemish School
The gallery owns 3 paintings by the Flemish artist Jan Brueghel the Elder
(1568-1625) including The Interior of a Gothic Church looking East
(1604).
The Flemish school is also represented by paintings from Pieter Bruegel
the Elder, Petrus Christus, Jan van Eyck, Jan Mabuse, Quentin Matsys,
Hans Memling, Peter Paul Rubens, David Teniers the Younger and Anthony
van Dyck.
French School
Different movements in the French school are well represented in the gallery
collection.
There are 19 paintings by Impressionist Claude Monet (1840-26), including
examples of his monumental Waterlily series; several by Manet (1832-83),
Camille Pissarro (1830 –1903), Paul Cezanne (1839–1906), Pierre
Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), Edgar Degas (1834–1917) and Jean-Baptiste
Camille Corot (1796–1875).
Also on view are still life master Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (1699-1779),
neoclassicist Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), Romantic painters and lithographers
Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) and Eugene Delacroix (1798–1863),
classical artist Nicolas Poussin (1594-1655) and Rococo painters Francois
Boucher (1703-70) and Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721).
German School
The German school is represented by German painter, printmaker and theorist
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Northern Renaissance artist Hans Holbein the
Younger (1497–1543), engraver and portraitist Lucas Cranach the Elder
(1472-1553) and neoclassical painter Johann Zoffany (1733–1810).
Italian School
The Italian Renaissance period is amply represented at the gallery with
paintings from the Proto-Renaissance by Giotto di Bondone and Duccio
di Buoninsegna; from the Early Renaissance by Fra Angelico, Sandro
Botticelli, Piero della Francesca, Masaccio, Andrea Mantegna, and Paolo
Uccello; from the High Renaissance by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael,
Michelangelo, Giovanni Bellini and Titian, the leading painter of the
16th-century Venetian school; from the Mannerist period by Parmigianino,
Caravaggio and Tintoretto. There are also Rococo works by the great fresco
painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.
Spanish School
The Spanish school is represented by artists Francisco Goya (1746–1828),
Baroque painters Bartolome-Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) and Diego Velazquez
1599–1660), painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and
Francisco Zurbaran (1598–1664) who was nicknamed the Spanish Caravaggio.
Female Artists in the National Gallery Collection
Female painters are well represented at the gallery, and include the following
artists and paintings:
- Catharina van Hemessen (1527-1566), Portrait of a Man (1552)
- Judith Leyster (1609-60), A Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel (c.1635)
- Marie Blancour, A Bowl of Flowers (c.1650)
- Rachel Ruysch, (1664-1750), Flowers in a Vase (1690)
- Rosalba Giovanna Carriera (1675-1757), Portrait of a Man (c.18th Century)
- Elizabeth Louise Veigee Le Brun (1755-1842) Self Portrait, Straw Hat
(1782)
- Rosa Bonheur (1822-99), The Horse Fair (1855)
- Berthe Morisot (1841-95),
Summer's Day (c.1879)
Top 30 Paintings in the National Gallery Collection
• The Hay Wain, John Constable
• Mr and Mrs Andrews, Thomas Gainsborough
• The Arnolfini Portrait, Jan
Van Eyck
• Samson and Delilah, Peter Paul
Rubens
• The Virgin of the Rocks, Leonardo
da Vinci
• Venus and Mars, Sandro Botticelli
• The Supper at Emmaus, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
• The Ambassadors, Hans
Holbein the Younger
• Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, Anthony
Van Dyck
• A Young Woman standing at a Virginal, Johannes
Vermeer
• Sunflowers, Vincent Van
Gogh
• Bathers at Asnières, Georges
Seurat
• The Fighting Temeraire, Joseph
Mallord William Turner
• Bathers at La Grenouillère, Claude
Monet
• Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses), Paul
Cezanne
• The Madonna of the Pinks, Raphael
• The Baptism of Christ, Piero
della Francesca
• Bacchus and Ariadne, Titian
• The Stonemason's Yard, Canaletto
• Whistlejacket, George Stubbs
• The Wilton Diptych, artist unknown
• Self Portrait at the Age of 34, Rembrandt
• Seaport with the Embarkation of Saint Ursula, Claude
Lorrain
• The Rokeby Venus, Diego
Velazquez
• Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame, Francois-Hubert Drouais
• Madame Moitessier, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres
• The Battle of San Romano, Paolo
Uccello
• The Doge Leonardo Loredan, Giovanni Bellini
• The Entombment, Michelangelo
• The Adoration of the Kings, Jan Gossaert
Contact Details
The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London
WC2N 5DN
Website: www.nationalgallery.org.uk
Email: information@ng-london.org.uk
Phone: +44 (207) 747-2885
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