History
At the beginning of the 19th century, King George IV came to the idea that many European cities had art galleries open to the general public: the Louvre in Paris, the Vatican Museums in Rome, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
George IV did not want Great Britain to lag behind Europe in any way, and in 1824 he pushed the government to approve a project to acquire a building for the museum. It became the house of the late John Julius Angerstein, a banker and collector of Russian descent. Together with the house, an extensive collection of 34 paintings by then-famous artists such as Rembrandt and Rubens was also acquired. Initially, these paintings were exhibited in the banker's residence on Pall Mall.
Over the years, the collection grew and soon became one of the most prestigious in Europe. Today, more than 2,300 works are on public display within the walls of the majestic building on Trafalgar Square, as any London guide will proudly tell you during a tour of the museum.
Museum building
The neoclassical building that now houses the museum was built in 1838. Its design, by architect William Wilkins, was criticized by many. Trafalgar Square, where the most popular London tours are held today, was then in the design stage and the site was only fenced off.
Plans to rebuild the building were never carried out, and in 1876 a west wing was added. In the mid-1980s, another expansion project was developed, but the modern design provoked many protests, primarily from the Prince of Wales. The project was shelved, and a more conventional design was adopted; this part of the museum is now known as the Sainsbury Wing.
Collection
The National Gallery's collection includes works by European masters from the 13th to the 19th centuries of the last millennium. The paintings are arranged in chronological order as much as possible.
The main entrance to the museum is located in the Sainsbury Wing, to the left of the main building. Here you can find the oldest paintings by Giotto and Jan van Eyck. Works of the late Renaissance masters such as Titian, Michelangelo and others are in the west wing. Paintings from the 17th century by artists from Italy, Flanders, Spain and the Netherlands are displayed in the north wing, along with works by such masters as Rubens, Van Dyck, Caravaggio, Rembrandt. Paintings of the 18th and 19th centuries are exhibited in the east wing. Here you can see works by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists such as Van Gogh, Seurat and Renoir.
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