National Gallery

The National Gallery is a major art museum located in Trafalgar Square. It sits within the City of Westminster in Central London, England.

The institution functions as an exempt charity and a non-departmental public body. It is overseen by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The gallery holds its collection in trust for the British public. Because of this status, entry to the main collection is free of charge. The museum houses more than 2,300 paintings. These works date from the mid-13th century until 1900.

Unlike many other national galleries in continental Europe, this museum had a unique beginning. Many European galleries, such as the Louvre in France, were formed by nationalising royal or princely collections. In Great Britain, the Royal Collection remained in the possession of the sovereign. The National Gallery was instead founded through a specific government purchase. In 1824, the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein.

One painting, "The Raising of Lazarus," became the first official acquisition. It is recorded in the gallery as "NG1." This initial purchase provided the foundation for what would become an encyclopaedic collection.

Building the collection required many years of effort and various methods of acquisition. After the initial 1824 purchase, the gallery grew through private donations and strategic buying. Today, private donations account for two-thirds of the entire collection. Early directors played a vital role in shaping these holdings. Sir Charles Lock Eastlake was particularly influential during his time as director. He conducted annual tours across the European continent and through Italy. He sought out specific works to expand the museum's scope. In total, Eastlake purchased 148 paintings abroad and 46 within Britain.

The history of the gallery's formation includes several missed opportunities. In 1777, the government considered buying the collection of Sir Robert Walpole. This collection was eventually purchased by Catherine the Great and moved to the State Hermitage Museum. Later, plans to acquire 150 paintings from the Orléans collection also failed. Even the offer of a ready-made collection by Noël Desenfans and Sir Francis Bourgeois was declined. Despite these setbacks, artists like James Barry and Flaxman argued for a national gallery. They believed a British school of painting needed access to the European canon. Eventually, the Angerstein collection was purchased for £57,000 in 1824.

The museum has occupied three different sites throughout its history. The first site was a townhouse at 100 Pall Mall.

This location was often criticized for being too small and too hot. It also suffered from subsidence, which forced a brief move to 105 Pall Mall. The current building was designed by architect William Wilkins. Construction on this third site began in 1832. It officially opened to the public in 1838. While the façade facing Trafalgar Square remains largely unchanged, the building has expanded many times. One notable addition is the Sainsbury Wing, completed in 1991 by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. This wing is a significant example of Postmodernist architecture.

The scope of the collection is described as encyclopaedic. This means it represents most major developments in Western painting. The museum features works ranging from the era of Giotto to the era of Cézanne. This breadth allows visitors to see how artistic styles evolved over centuries. The collection includes masters of the High Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance. Some early acquisitions focused on these High Renaissance masters. However, directors like Eastlake expanded this to include "primitives," or early Italian Renaissance masters. This shift helped the gallery represent a much wider history of human creativity.

Maintaining such a vast collection involves complex scientific and historical work. One major area of focus is conservation, which is the preservation of artworks. In 1844, the gallery began its first major cleaning operations. These efforts were sometimes controversial among critics of the time. Beyond cleaning, the gallery must manage the physical space and the movement of art. During the Second World War, paintings had to be moved for safety.

Today, the National Gallery remains a central part of the global art community. It connects the historical legacy of European painting with the modern public.