124-632: The Hong Kong Museum of Art ( HKMoA ) is the first and main art museum of Hong Kong, located in Salisbury Road , Tsim Sha Tsui . It is a public museum managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government . HKMoA has an art collection of over 17,000 items. Admission is free for permanent exhibitions. Its rival is the non-government-managed Hong Kong Arts Centre . These two museums are considered to be
248-524: A Parthenon -like building for the Royal Academy would occupy the centre of the square. Economic recession prevented this scheme from being built, but a competition for the Mews site was eventually held in 1831, for which Nash submitted a design with Charles Robert Cockerell as his co-architect. Nash's popularity was waning by this time, however, and the commission was awarded to William Wilkins , who
372-470: A sword , could be hired from shops outside. The treasuries of cathedrals and large churches, or parts of them, were often set out for public display and veneration. Many of the grander English country houses could be toured by the respectable for a tip to the housekeeper, during the long periods when the family were not in residence. Special arrangements were made to allow the public to see many royal or private collections placed in galleries, as with most of
496-492: A $ 400 million expansion and renovation. It reopened on 30 November 2019. The museum changes its displays regularly. The exhibitions in the museum are mainly of paintings, calligraphy and sculpture from Hong Kong, China and other parts of the world. It has cooperated with other museums as well. From 25 May to 4 July 1962, the museum (then still named the Hong Kong City Hall Museum and Art Gallery) held
620-418: A British school of painting could only flourish if it had access to the canon of European painting. The British Institution , founded in 1805 by a group of aristocratic connoisseurs, attempted to address this situation. The members lent works to exhibitions that changed annually, while an art school was held in the summer months. However, as the paintings that were lent were often mediocre, some artists resented
744-627: A European style. Its sale was controversial in the United States. In 2018, the National Gallery was one of the first public galleries in London to charge more than £20 for admission to a special exhibition, the exhibition in question being of works by Claude Monet . In February 2019, an employment tribunal ruled that the gallery had incorrectly classed its team of educators as self-employed contractors. The educators were awarded
868-517: A Mormon service being conducted in St. Paul's Cathedral as to see the exhibition of the works of the modern French Art-rebels in the sacred precincts of Trafalgar Square". Perhaps as a result of such attitudes, Lane amended his will with a codicil that the works should only go to Ireland, but crucially this was never witnessed. Lane died on board the RMS ; Lusitania in 1915, and a dispute began which
992-537: A bequest. The Kunstmuseum Basel , through its lineage which extends back to the Amerbach Cabinet , which included a collection of works by Hans Holbein the Younger and purchased by the city of Basel in 1661, is considered to be the first museum of art open to the public in the world. In the second half of the 18th century, many private collections of art were opened to the public, and during and after
1116-522: A century, resulting in a building of clear symmetry. Pennethorne's gallery was demolished for the next phase of building, a scheme by Sir John Taylor extending northwards of the main entrance. Its glass-domed entrance vestibule had painted ceiling decorations by the Crace family firm, who had also worked on the Barry Rooms. A fresco intended for the south wall was never realised. Later additions to
1240-449: A collaboration of museums and galleries that are more interested with the categorization of art. They are interested in the potential use of folksonomy within museums and the requirements for post-processing of terms that have been gathered, both to test their utility and to deploy them in useful ways. The steve.museum is one example of a site that is experimenting with this collaborative philosophy. The participating institutions include
1364-511: A competition for design proposals to upgrade the Sainsbury Wing. A letter written in 1990 by one of the donors, John Sainsbury , was discovered in 2023 during the demolition of two false columns in which he argued that "the false columns are a mistake of the architect and that we would live to regret our accepting this detail of his design." In 2024, excavations for the Sainsbury Wing extension at Jubilee Walk uncovered evidence that
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#17328025320871488-579: A director, whose authority would surpass that of the trustees. Many thought the position would go to the German art historian Gustav Friedrich Waagen , whom the gallery had consulted on previous occasions about the lighting and display of the collections. However, the man preferred for the job by Queen Victoria , Prince Albert and the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell , was the Keeper of Paintings at
1612-433: A major factor in social mobility (for example, getting a higher-paid, higher-status job). The argument states that certain art museums are aimed at perpetuating aristocratic and upper class ideals of taste and excludes segments of society without the social opportunities to develop such interest. The fine arts thus perpetuate social inequality by creating divisions between different social groups. This argument also ties in with
1736-402: A number of online art catalogues and galleries that have been developed independently of the support of any individual museum. Many of these, like American Art Gallery, are attempts to develop galleries of artwork that are encyclopedic or historical in focus, while others are commercial efforts to sell the work of contemporary artists. A limited number of such sites have independent importance in
1860-576: A record-setting grant of £87,500 from the Treasury , brought the gallery's "golden age of collecting" to an end, as its annual purchase grant was suspended for several years thereafter. When the gallery purchased Holbein 's Ambassadors from the Earl of Radnor in 1890, it did so with the aid of private individuals for the first time in its history. In 1897, the formation of the National Gallery of British Art, known unofficially from early in its history as
1984-571: A request from an artist to see Rembrandt 's Portrait of Margaretha de Geer (a new acquisition) resulted in the "Picture of the Month" scheme, in which a single painting was removed from Manod and exhibited to the general public in the National Gallery each month. The art critic Herbert Read , writing that year, called the National Gallery "a defiant outpost of culture right in the middle of a bombed and shattered metropolis". The paintings returned to Trafalgar Square in 1945. The last major outcry against
2108-551: A road to Carlton House Terrace . In 1832, construction began on a new building by William Wilkins on the northern half of the site of the old Royal Mews in Charing Cross , after the transformation of its southern half into Trafalgar Square in the late 1820s. The location was a significant one, between the wealthy West End and poorer areas to the east. The argument that the collection could be accessed by people of all social classes outstripped other concerns, such as
2232-457: A studio to contemporary artists to create work based on the permanent collection. They usually hold the position of associate artist for two years and are given an exhibition in the National Gallery at the end of their tenure. The respective remits of the National and Tate Galleries, which had long been contested by the two institutions, were more clearly defined in 1996. 1900 was established as
2356-607: A tower, similar to that of the Rogers scheme. The proposal was dropped after the Prince of Wales compared the design to a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend". The term "monstrous carbuncle", for a modern building that clashes with its surroundings, has since become commonplace. One of the conditions of the 1982 competition was that the new wing had to include commercial offices as well as public gallery space. However, in 1985 it became possible to devote
2480-649: A variety of routes. In 1799, the dealer Noël Desenfans offered a ready-made national collection to the British government; he and his partner Sir Francis Bourgeois had assembled it for the king of Poland , before the Third Partition in 1795 abolished Polish independence. This offer was declined and Bourgeois bequeathed the collection to his old school, Dulwich College , on his death. The collection opened in 1814 in Britain's first purpose-built public gallery,
2604-679: Is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster , in Central London , England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900 . The current director of the National Gallery is Gabriele Finaldi . The National Gallery is an exempt charity , and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport . Its collection belongs to
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#17328025320872728-632: Is generally considered to have been the first art museum in the United States. It was originally housed in the Renwick Gallery , built in 1859. Now a part of the Smithsonian Institution , the Renwick housed William Wilson Corcoran 's collection of American and European art. The building was designed by James Renwick Jr. and finally completed in 1874. It is located at 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Renwick designed it after
2852-559: Is provided by a dedicated print room located within the museum. Murals or mosaics often remain where they have been created ( in situ ), although many have also been removed to galleries. Various forms of 20th-century art, such as land art and performance art , also usually exist outside a gallery. Photographic records of these kinds of art are often shown in galleries, however. Most museums and large art galleries own more works than they have room to display. The rest are held in reserve collections , on or off-site. A sculpture garden
2976-557: Is similar to an art gallery, presenting sculpture in an outdoor space. Sculpture has grown in popularity with sculptures installed in open spaces on both a permanent and temporary basis. Most larger paintings from about 1530 onwards were designed to be seen either in churches or palaces, and many buildings built as palaces now function successfully as art museums. By the 18th century additions to palaces and country houses were sometimes intended specifically as galleries for viewing art, and designed with that in mind. The architectural form of
3100-644: Is still honoured as of 2024, but his bequest has never been adequately displayed in its entirety; today the works are divided between Trafalgar Square and the Clore Gallery, a small purpose-built extension to Tate Britain completed in 1985. The third director, Sir Frederic William Burton , laid the foundations of the collection of 18th-century art and made several outstanding purchases from English private collections. The acquisition in 1885 of two paintings from Blenheim Palace , Raphael's Ansidei Madonna and van Dyck's Equestrian Portrait of Charles I , with
3224-502: Is to shape identity and memory, cultural heritage, distilled narratives and treasured stories. Many art museums throughout history have been designed with a cultural purpose or been subject to political intervention. In particular, national art galleries have been thought to incite feelings of nationalism . This has occurred in both democratic and non-democratic countries, although authoritarian regimes have historically exercised more control over administration of art museums. Ludwig Justi
3348-848: The Alte Pinakothek , Munich) opened to the public in 1779, that of the Medici in Florence around 1789 (as the Uffizi Gallery), and the Museum Français at the Louvre was formed out of the former French royal collection in 1793. Great Britain , however, did not follow other European countries, and the British Royal Collection still remains in the sovereign's possession. In 1777, the British government had
3472-534: The Alte Pinakothek , Munich) was opened to the public in 1779 and the Medici collection in Florence around 1789 (as the Uffizi Gallery). The opening of the Musée du Louvre during the French Revolution in 1793 as a public museum for much of the former French royal collection marked an important stage in the development of public access to art by transferring the ownership to a republican state; but it
3596-666: The Angerstein collection , and that a suitable building was to be found. The unexpected repayment of a war debt by Austria finally moved the government to buy Angerstein's collection, for £57,000. The National Gallery opened in 1824 in Angerstein's former townhouse at No. 100 Pall Mall . Angerstein's paintings were joined in 1826 by those from Beaumont's collection, and in 1831 by the Reverend William Holwell Carr 's bequest of 35 paintings. Initially
3720-560: The Dulwich Picture Gallery . The Scottish dealer William Buchanan and the collector Joseph Count Truchsess both formed art collections expressly as the basis for a future national collection, but their respective offers (both made in 1803) were also declined. Following the Walpole sale many artists, including James Barry and John Flaxman , had made renewed calls for the establishment of a National Gallery, arguing that
3844-598: The Farnborough Airshow . The sponsorship deal was ended a year early after protests. In February 2014, the gallery purchased Men of the Docks by the American artist George Bellows for $ 25.5 million (£15.6 million). It was the first major American painting to be purchased by the gallery. The director, Nicholas Penny , termed the painting a new direction for the gallery, a non-European painting in
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3968-594: The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars , many royal collections were nationalized, even where the monarchy remained in place, as in Spain and Bavaria . In 1753, the British Museum was established and the Old Royal Library collection of manuscripts was donated to it for public viewing. In 1777, a proposal to the British government was put forward by MP John Wilkes to buy the art collection of
4092-772: The Guggenheim Museum in New York City by Frank Lloyd Wright , the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry , Centre Pompidou-Metz by Shigeru Ban , and the redesign of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Mario Botta . Some critics argue these galleries defeat their purposes because their dramatic interior spaces distract the eye from the paintings they are supposed to exhibit. Museums are more than just mere 'fixed structures designed to house collections.' Their purpose
4216-603: The Guggenheim Museum , the Cleveland Museum of Art , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . There are relatively few local/regional/national organizations dedicated specifically to art museums. Most art museums are associated with local/regional/national organizations for the arts , humanities or museums in general. Many of these organizations are listed as follows: National Gallery The National Gallery
4340-551: The Late Medieval period onwards, areas in royal palaces, castles , and large country houses of the social elite were often made partially accessible to sections of the public, where art collections could be viewed. At the Palace of Versailles , entrance was restricted to people of certain social classes who were required to wear the proper apparel, which typically included the appropriate accessories, silver shoe buckles and
4464-540: The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo . The phrase "art gallery" is also sometimes used to describe businesses which display art for sale, but these are not art museums. Throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions or political leaders and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces . Although these collections of art were not open to
4588-624: The Papacy , while the Vatican Museums , whose collections are still owned by the Pope, trace their foundation to 1506, when the recently discovered Laocoön and His Sons was put on public display. A series of museums on different subjects were opened over subsequent centuries, and many of the buildings of the Vatican were purpose-built as galleries. An early royal treasury opened to the public
4712-667: The Tate Gallery , allowed some British works to be moved off-site, following the precedent set by the Vernon collection and the Turner Bequest. Works by artists born after 1790 were moved to the new gallery on Millbank , which allowed Hogarth , Turner and Constable to remain in Trafalgar Square. The agricultural crisis at the turn of the 20th century caused many aristocratic families to sell their paintings, but
4836-505: The museum 's own collection . It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although primarily concerned with visual art , art museums are often used as a venue for other cultural exchanges and artistic activities, such as lectures, jewelry, performance arts , music concerts, or poetry readings. Art museums also frequently host themed temporary exhibitions, which often include items on loan from other collections. An institution dedicated to
4960-553: The mystification of fine arts . Research suggests that the context in which an artwork is being presented has significant influence on its reception by the audience, and viewers shown artworks in a museum rated them more highly than when displayed in a "laboratory" setting Most art museums have only limited online collections, but a few museums, as well as some libraries and government agencies, have developed substantial online catalogues. Museums, libraries, and government agencies with substantial online collections include: There are
5084-531: The "Hampton's site" to the west of the main building, where a department store of the same name had stood until its destruction in the Blitz . The gallery had long sought expansion into this space and in 1982 a competition was held to find a suitable architect; the shortlist included a radical high-tech proposal by Richard Rogers , among others. The design that won the most votes was by the firm Ahrends, Burton and Koralek , who then modified their proposal to include
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5208-401: The 1970s, a number of political theorists and social commentators have pointed to the political implications of art museums and social relations. Pierre Bourdieu , for instance, argued that in spite the apparent freedom of choice in the arts, people's artistic preferences (such as classical music, rock, traditional music) strongly tie in with their social position. So called cultural capital is
5332-482: The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Lundenwic extended further to the west than had previously been supposed. In the National Gallery on 10 March 1914, Velázquez's Rokeby Venus was damaged by Mary Richardson , a campaigner for women's suffrage , in protest against the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst the previous day. Later that month another suffragette attacked five Bellinis , causing the gallery to close until
5456-509: The British national collections were priced out of the market by American plutocrats. This prompted the foundation of the National Art-Collections Fund , a society of subscribers dedicated to stemming the flow of artworks to the United States. Their first acquisition for the National Gallery was Velázquez 's Rokeby Venus in 1906, followed by Holbein 's Portrait of Christina of Denmark in 1909. However, despite
5580-724: The East Wing Project, which would provide a future ground level entrance, and the public opening of some small rooms at the far eastern end of the building acquired as part of the swap with the National Portrait Gallery. This might include a new public staircase in the bow on the eastern façade. No timetable has been announced for these additional projects. In April 2021, a jury short-listed six firms of architects – Caruso St John , David Chipperfield Architects , Asif Kahn, David Kohn Architects , Selldorf Architects , and Witherford Watson Mann Architects – in
5704-497: The Hon. Simon Sainsbury and Sir Timothy Sainsbury , had made a donation that would enable the construction of the Sainsbury Wing. The directorship of Neil MacGregor saw a major rehang at the gallery, dispensing with the classification of paintings by national school that had been introduced by Eastlake. The new chronological hang sought to emphasise the interaction between cultures rather than fixed national characteristics, reflecting
5828-664: The Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Awards in 2009. The museum is within walking distance of both East Tsim Sha Tsui station and Tsim Sha Tsui station of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR). It is even nearer the Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Pier , which offers services to Wan Chai and Central . Art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art , usually from
5952-500: The Institution and saw it as a racket for the gentry to increase the sale prices of their Old Master paintings. One of the Institution's founding members, Sir George Beaumont, Bt , would eventually play a major role in the National Gallery's foundation by offering a gift of 16 paintings. In 1823, another major art collection came on the market, which had been assembled by the recently deceased John Julius Angerstein . Angerstein
6076-563: The Keeper of Paintings, William Seguier , bore the burden of managing the gallery, but in July 1824 some of this responsibility fell to the newly formed board of trustees. The National Gallery at Pall Mall was frequently overcrowded and hot, and its diminutive size in comparison with the Louvre in Paris was a cause of national embarrassment. But Agar-Ellis, by then a trustee of the gallery, appraised
6200-549: The Louvre's Tuileries addition. At the time of its construction, it was known as "the American Louvre". University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in the West and East, making it a global practice. Although easily overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in
6324-579: The Marxist theory of mystification and elite culture . Furthermore, certain art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris are situated in buildings of considerable emotional impact. The Louvre in Paris is for instance located in the former Royal Castle of the ancient regime , and is thus clearly designed with a political agenda. It has been argued that such buildings create feelings of subjugation and adds to
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#17328025320876448-464: The Muses includes portraits of Virginia Woolf and Greta Garbo , subverting the high moral tone of its Victorian forebears. In place of Christianity's seven virtues , Anrep offered his own set of Modern Virtues , including "Humour" and "Open Mind"; the allegorical figures are again portraits of his contemporaries, including Winston Churchill, Bertrand Russell and T. S. Eliot . In the 20th century,
6572-537: The National Gallery (as suggested by Sir Charles Barry in 1853), or to move it to more capacious premises in Kensington , where the air was also cleaner. In 1867 Barry's son Edward Middleton Barry proposed to replace the Wilkins building with a massive classical building with four domes. The scheme was a failure and contemporary critics denounced the exterior as "a strong plagiarism upon St Paul's Cathedral". With
6696-494: The National Gallery began in 1844 after Eastlake's appointment as Keeper, and was the subject of attacks in the press after the first three paintings to receive the treatment – a Rubens , a Cuyp and a Velázquez – were unveiled to the public in 1846. The gallery's most virulent critic was J. Morris Moore, who wrote a series of letters to The Times under the pseudonym "Verax" savaging the institution's cleanings. While an 1853 Parliamentary select committee set up to investigate
6820-490: The National Gallery in exchange for land for its 2000 extension. The first phase, the East Wing Project designed by Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones , opened to the public in 2004. This provided a new ground level entrance from Trafalgar Square, named in honour of Sir Paul Getty . The main entrance was also refurbished, and reopened in September 2005. Possible future projects include a "West Wing Project" roughly symmetrical with
6944-494: The National Gallery. A 1947 commission concluded that no damage had been done in the recent cleanings. In the post-war years, acquisitions have become increasingly difficult for the National Gallery as the prices for Old Masters – and even more so for the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists – have risen beyond its means. Some of the gallery's most significant purchases in this period would have been impossible without
7068-482: The North Galleries, by then considered to "lack a positive architectural character", were remodelled in a classical style, albeit a simplified one. The most important addition to the building in the late 20th century was the Sainsbury Wing, designed by the postmodernist architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown to house the collection of Renaissance paintings and built in 1991. The building occupies
7192-609: The Tate. The director Kenneth Clark 's decision in 1939 to label a group of Venetian paintings, Scenes from Tebaldeo's Eclogues , as works by Giorgione was controversial at the time, and the panels were soon identified as works by Andrea Previtali by a junior curator Clark had appointed. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War the paintings were evacuated to locations in Wales , including Penrhyn Castle and
7316-424: The US alone. This number, compared to other kinds of art museums, makes university art museums perhaps the largest category of art museums in the country. While the first of these collections can be traced to learning collections developed in art academies in Western Europe, they are now associated with and housed in centers of higher education of all types. The word gallery being originally an architectural term,
7440-487: The Wilkins façade a "much-loved and elegant friend", in contrast to a proposed extension. ( See below ) The first significant alteration made to the building was the single, long gallery added by Sir James Pennethorne in 1860–1861. Ornately decorated in comparison with the rooms by Wilkins, it nonetheless worsened the cramped conditions inside the building as it was built over the original entrance hall. Unsurprisingly, several attempts were made either to completely remodel
7564-433: The active lending-out of a museum's collected objects in order to enhance education at schools and to aid in the cultural development of individual members of the community. Finally, Dana saw branch museums throughout a city as a good method of making sure that every citizen has access to its benefits. Dana's view of the ideal museum sought to invest a wider variety of people in it, and was self-consciously not elitist. Since
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#17328025320877688-441: The aim being to create neutral settings which did not distract from contemplation of the paintings. But the gallery's commitment to modernism was short-lived: by the 1980s Victorian style was no longer considered anathema, and a restoration programme began to restore the 19th- and early 20th-century interiors to their purported original appearance. This began with the refurbishment of the Barry Rooms in 1985–1986. From 1996 to 1999 even
7812-411: The arrangement of a dome and two diminutive turrets on the roofline to "the clock and vases on a mantelpiece, only less useful". Sir Charles Barry 's landscaping of Trafalgar Square, from 1840, included a north terrace so that the building would appear to be raised, thus addressing one of the points of complaint. Opinion on the building had mellowed considerably by 1984, when Prince Charles called
7936-428: The art museum occupied the 8th (rear portion), 9th, 10th, and 11th storeys of the High Block. These floors now house a public library. In 1991, it was moved to the present premises at 10 Salisbury Road , near the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the Hong Kong Space Museum , in Tsim Sha Tsui . The new museum was formally inaugurated by Governor Chris Patten on 11 September 1992. The museum closed on 3 August 2015 for
8060-418: The art world. The large auction houses, such as Sotheby's , Bonhams , and Christie's , maintain large online databases of art which they have auctioned or are auctioning. Bridgeman Art Library serves as a central source of reproductions of artwork, with access limited to museums, art dealers , and other professionals or professional organizations. There are also online galleries that have been developed by
8184-416: The backing of major public appeals; the departing director Charles Saumarez Smith expressed his frustration at this situation in 2007. The National Gallery was sponsored by the Italian arms manufacturer Finmeccanica between October 2011 and October 2012. The sponsorship deal allowed the company to use gallery spaces for gatherings, and the gallery was used to host delegates during the DSEI arms fair and
8308-509: The building to be one room deep, as a workhouse and a barracks lay immediately behind. To exacerbate matters, there was a public right of way through the site to these buildings, which accounts for the access porticoes on the eastern and western sides of the façade. These had to incorporate columns from the demolished Carlton House , and their relative shortness resulted in an elevation that was deemed excessively low, thus failing to provide Trafalgar Square with its desired commanding focal point to
8432-400: The change in art-historical values since the 19th century. In other respects, however, Victorian tastes were rehabilitated: the building's interiors were no longer considered an embarrassment and were restored, and in 1999 the gallery accepted a bequest of 26 Italian Baroque paintings from Sir Denis Mahon . Earlier in the 20th century many considered the Baroque to be beyond the pale: in 1945
8556-455: The clubhouses on Pall Mall, the Scala Regia in the Vatican, Victorian warehouses and Ancient Egyptian temples. Following the pedestrianisation of Trafalgar Square, the gallery is currently engaged in a masterplan to convert the vacated office space on the ground floor into public space. The plan will also fill in disused courtyards and make use of land acquired from the adjoining National Portrait Gallery in St Martin's Place, which it gave to
8680-406: The continent and to Italy in particular, seeking out appropriate paintings to buy for the gallery. In all, he bought 148 pictures abroad and 46 in Britain, among the former such seminal works as Paolo Uccello 's The Battle of San Romano . Eastlake also amassed a private art collection during this period, consisting of paintings that he knew did not interest the trustees. His ultimate aim, however,
8804-434: The crisis in aristocratic fortunes, the following decade was one of several great bequests from private collectors. In 1909, the industrialist Ludwig Mond gave 42 Italian Renaissance paintings, including the Mond Crucifixion by Raphael , to the gallery. Other bequests of note were those of George Salting in 1910, Austen Henry Layard in 1916 and Sir Hugh Lane in 1917. The initial reception of Impressionist art at
8928-399: The cut-off point for paintings in the National Gallery, and in 1997 more than 60 post-1900 paintings from the collection were given to the Tate on a long-term loan, in return for works by Gauguin and others. However, future expansion of the National Gallery may yet see the return of 20th-century paintings to its walls. In the 21st century there have been three large fundraising campaigns at
9052-404: The decorative programme of the rooms did not take their intended contents into account; the ceiling of the 15th- and 16th-century Italian gallery, for instance, was inscribed with the names of British artists of the 19th century. However, despite these failures, the Barry Rooms provided the gallery with a strong axial groundplan; this was to be followed by all subsequent additions to the gallery for
9176-507: The demolition of the workhouse, however, Barry was able to build the gallery's first sequence of grand architectural spaces, from 1872 to 1876. Built to a polychrome Neo-Renaissance design, the Barry Rooms were arranged on a Greek cross plan around a huge central octagon. Though it compensated for the underwhelming architecture of the Wilkins building, Barry's new wing was disliked by Gallery staff, who considered its monumental aspect to be in conflict with its function as exhibition space. Also,
9300-664: The display of art can be called an art museum or an art gallery, and the two terms may be used interchangeably. This is reflected in the names of institutions around the world, some of which are considered art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin , and some of which are considered museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and
9424-695: The display rooms in museums are often called public galleries . Also frequently, a series of rooms dedicated to specific historic periods (e.g. Ancient Egypt ) or other significant themed groupings of works (e.g. the gypsotheque or collection of plaster casts as in the Ashmolean Museum ) within a museum with a more varied collection are referred to as specific galleries, e.g. Egyptian Gallery or Cast Gallery . Works on paper, such as drawings , pastels , watercolors , prints , and photographs are typically not permanently displayed for reasons of conservation . Instead, public access to these materials
9548-629: The entire building solely intended to be an art gallery was arguably established by Sir John Soane with his design for the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1817. This established the gallery as a series of interconnected rooms with largely uninterrupted wall spaces for hanging pictures and indirect lighting from skylights or roof lanterns . The late 19th century saw a boom in the building of public art galleries in Europe and America, becoming an essential cultural feature of larger cities. More art galleries rose up alongside museums and public libraries as part of
9672-420: The extension entirely to the gallery's uses, due to a donation of almost £50 million from Lord Sainsbury and his brothers Simon and Sir Tim Sainsbury . A closed competition was held, and the schemes produced were noticeably more restrained than in the earlier competition. In contrast with the rich ornamentation of the main building, the galleries in the Sainsbury Wing are pared down and intimate, to suit
9796-399: The first 30 years of its existence the trustees' independent acquisitions were mainly limited to works by High Renaissance masters. Their conservative tastes resulted in several missed opportunities and the management of the gallery later fell into complete disarray, with no acquisitions being made between 1847 and 1850. A critical House of Commons report in 1851 called for the appointment of
9920-469: The first air-conditioned gallery opening in 1949. For the course of the war Myra Hess and other musicians, such as Moura Lympany , gave daily lunch-time recitals in the empty building in Trafalgar Square, to raise public morale as every concert hall in London was closed. Art exhibitions were held at the gallery as a complement to the recitals. The first of these was British Painting since Whistler in 1940, organised by Lillian Browse , who also mounted
10044-491: The founder of the Newark Museum , saw the traditional art museum as a useless public institution, one that focused more on fashion and conformity rather than education and uplift. Indeed, Dana's ideal museum would be one best suited for active and vigorous use by the average citizen, located near the center of their daily movement. In addition, Dana's conception of the perfect museum included a wider variety of objects than
10168-528: The frontispiece of Contrasts (1836), an influential tract by the Gothicist Augustus Pugin , as an example of the degeneracy of the classical style. Even William IV (in his last recorded utterance) thought the building a "nasty little pokey hole", while William Makepeace Thackeray called it "a little gin shop of a building". The twentieth-century architectural historian Sir John Summerson echoed these early criticisms when he compared
10292-454: The gallery was exceptionally controversial. In 1906, Sir Hugh Lane promised 39 paintings, including Renoir 's Umbrellas , to the National Gallery on his death, unless a suitable building could be built in Dublin . Although eagerly accepted by the director Charles Holroyd , they were received with extreme hostility by the trustees; Lord Redesdale wrote that "I would as soon expect to hear of
10416-460: The gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, especially Charles Lock Eastlake , and by private donations, which now account for two-thirds of the collection. The collection is smaller than many European national galleries, but encyclopaedic in scope; most major developments in Western painting "from Giotto to Cézanne " are represented with important works. It used to be claimed that this
10540-444: The gallery's late Victorian interiors fell out of fashion. The Crace ceiling decorations in the entrance hall were not to the taste of the director Charles Holmes , and were obliterated by white paint. The North Galleries, which opened to the public in 1975, marked the arrival of modernist architecture at the National Gallery. In the older rooms, the original classical details were effaced by partitions, daises and suspended ceilings,
10664-462: The gallery's trustees declined to buy a Guercino from Mahon's collection for £200. The same painting was valued at £4 million in 2003. Mahon's bequest was made on the condition that the gallery would never deaccession any of its paintings or charge for admission. Jock McFadyen was the first Artist in Residence in 1981. Since 1989, the gallery has run an Associate Artist scheme that gives
10788-570: The gallery, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake . Eastlake, who was President of the Royal Academy , played an essential role in the foundation of the Arundel Society and knew most of London's leading art experts. The new director's taste was for the Northern and Early Italian Renaissance masters or "primitives", who had been neglected by the gallery's acquisitions policy but were slowly gaining recognition from connoisseurs. He made annual tours to
10912-408: The gallery. This axis is exaggerated by the use of false perspective , as the columns flanking each opening gradually diminish in size until the visitor reaches the focal point (as of 2009), an altarpiece by Cima of The Incredulity of Saint Thomas . Venturi's postmodernist approach to architecture is in full evidence at the Sainsbury Wing, with its stylistic quotations from buildings as disparate as
11036-561: The gallery: in 2004, to buy Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks ; in 2008, for Titian's Diana and Actaeon ; and in 2012, Titian's Diana and Callisto . Both Titians were bought in tandem with the National Gallery of Scotland for £95 m. Both of these major works were sold from the collection of the Duke of Sutherland . The National Gallery is now largely priced out of the market for Old Master paintings and can only make such acquisitions with
11160-424: The general public, they were often made available for viewing for a section of the public. In classical times , religious institutions began to function as an early form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects, such as Julius Caesar , often donated their collections to temples. It is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. In Europe, from
11284-455: The government on behalf of the British public, and entry to the main collection is free of charge. Unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, the National Gallery was not formed by nationalising 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 in 1824. After that initial purchase,
11408-707: The late Sir Robert Walpole , who had amassed one of the greatest such collections in Europe , and house it in a specially built wing of the British Museum for public viewing. After much debate, the idea was eventually abandoned due to the great expense, and twenty years later, the collection was bought by Tsaritsa Catherine the Great of Russia and housed in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg . The Bavarian royal collection (now in
11532-490: The major exhibition, Hong Kong Art Today . It was significant as the first exhibition with Hong Kong art as its theme. The exhibition also reflected how naturalism in art had become passé and that abstract art was favoured at that moment in time. Since 1975, the museum has hosted the Hong Kong Art Biennial Exhibition featuring the work of contemporary Hong Kong artists. It was renamed
11656-472: The major joint retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by Sir William Nicholson and Jack B. Yeats held from 1 January to 15 March 1942, which was seen by 10,518 visitors. Exhibitions of work by war artists, including Paul Nash , Henry Moore and Stanley Spencer , were also held; the War Artists' Advisory Committee had been set up by Clark in order "to keep artists at work on any pretext". In 1941,
11780-544: The major public appeals backing them, including Leonardo da Vinci 's cartoon of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist (bought in 1962) and Titian 's Death of Actaeon (bought in 1972). The gallery's purchase grant from the government was frozen in 1985, but later that year it received an endowment of £50 million from Sir Paul Getty , enabling many major purchases to be made. In April 1985 Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover and his brothers,
11904-458: The matter cleared the gallery of any wrongdoing, criticism of its methods has been erupting sporadically ever since from some in the art establishment. The gallery's lack of space remained acute in this period. In 1845, a large bequest of British paintings was made by Robert Vernon ; there was insufficient room in the Wilkins building so they were displayed first in Vernon's town house at No. 50 Pall Mall and then at Marlborough House . The gallery
12028-572: The monarch, and the first purpose-built national art galleries were the Dulwich Picture Gallery , founded in 1814 and the National Gallery, London opened to the public a decade later in 1824. Similarly, the National Gallery in Prague was not formed by opening an existing royal or princely art collection to the public, but was created from scratch as a joint project of some Czech aristocrats in 1796. The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
12152-523: The municipal drive for literacy and public education. Over the middle and late twentieth century, earlier architectural styles employed for art museums (such as the Beaux-Arts style of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City or the Gothic and Renaissance Revival architecture of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum) succumbed to modern styles , such as Deconstructivism . Examples of this trend include
12276-592: The north. Also recycled are the sculptures on the façade, originally intended for Nash's Marble Arch but abandoned due to his financial problems. The eastern half of the building housed the Royal Academy until 1868, which further diminished the space afforded to the National Gallery. The building was the object of public ridicule before it had even been completed, as a version of the design had been leaked to The Literary Gazette in 1833. Two years before completion, its infamous "pepperpot" elevation appeared on
12400-471: The opportunity to buy an art collection of international stature, when the descendants of Sir Robert Walpole put his collection up for sale. The MP John Wilkes argued for the government to buy this "invaluable treasure" and suggested that it be housed in "a noble gallery... to be built in the spacious garden of the British Museum". Nothing came of Wilkes's appeal and 20 years later the collection
12524-602: The paintings of the Orleans Collection , which were housed in a wing of the Palais-Royal in Paris and could be visited for most of the 18th century. In Italy, the art tourism of the Grand Tour became a major industry from the 18th century onwards, and cities made efforts to make their key works accessible. The Capitoline Museums began in 1471 with a donation of classical sculpture to the city of Rome by
12648-504: The pollution of central London or the failings of Wilkins's building, when the prospect of a move to South Kensington was mooted in the 1850s. According to the Parliamentary Commission of 1857, "The existence of the pictures is not the end purpose of the collection, but the means only to give the people an ennobling enjoyment". 15th- and 16th-century Italian paintings were at the core of the National Gallery and for
12772-447: The site for being "in the very gangway of London"; this was seen as necessary for the gallery to fulfil its social purpose. Subsidence in No. 100 caused the gallery to move briefly to No. 105 Pall Mall, which the novelist Anthony Trollope described as a "dingy, dull, narrow house, ill-adapted for the exhibition of the treasures it held". This in turn had to be demolished for the opening of
12896-404: The smaller scale of many of the paintings. The main inspirations for these rooms are Sir John Soane 's toplit galleries for the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the church interiors of Filippo Brunelleschi . (The stone dressing is in pietra serena , the grey stone local to Florence.) The northernmost galleries align with Barry's central axis, so that there is a single vista down the whole length of
13020-449: The status of "workers" following legal action brought by 27 claimants. The case received considerable press and media coverage. In 2024, the National Gallery celebrated its 200th anniversary with a range of programmes, events, and collaborations. The first suggestion for a National Gallery on Trafalgar Square came from John Nash , who envisaged it on the site of the King's Mews , while
13144-1092: The top two art museums in Hong Kong that dictate the discourse of art in Hong Kong. It has an extended branch, the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware , at the Hong Kong Park in Central . The museum was established as the City Hall Museum and Art Gallery in the City Hall in Central by the Urban Council on 2 March 1962. This was split into the Hong Kong Museum of History and the Hong Kong Museum of Art in July 1975. The Museum of History moved to Kowloon Park in 1983. Before leaving City Hall in 1991,
13268-399: The traditional art museum, including industrial tools and handicrafts that encourage imagination in areas traditionally considered mundane. This view of the art museum envisions it as one well-suited to an industrial world, indeed enhancing it. Dana viewed paintings and sculptures as much less useful than industrial products, comparing the museum to a department store. In addition, he encouraged
13392-558: The university colleges of Bangor and Aberystwyth . In 1940, during the Battle of France , a more secure home was sought, and there were discussions about moving the paintings to Canada. This idea was firmly rejected by Winston Churchill , who wrote in a telegram to Kenneth Clark, "bury them in caves or in cellars, but not a picture shall leave these islands". Instead a slate quarry at Manod , near Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales,
13516-496: The use of radical conservation techniques at the National Gallery was in the immediate post-war years, following a restoration campaign by the gallery's chief restorer Helmut Ruhemann while the paintings were in Manod Quarry. When the cleaned pictures were exhibited to the public in 1946 there followed a furore with parallels to that of a century earlier. The principal criticism was that the extensive removal of varnish , which
13640-435: The west came more steadily but maintained the coherence of the building by mirroring Barry's cross-axis plan to the east. The use of dark marble for doorcases was also continued, giving the extensions a degree of internal consistency with the older rooms. The classical style was still in use at the National Gallery in 1929, when a Beaux-Arts –style gallery was built, funded by the art dealer and trustee Lord Duveen . However, it
13764-453: Was a Russian-born émigré banker based in London; his collection numbered 38 paintings, including works by Raphael and Hogarth 's Marriage A-la-Mode series. On 1 July 1823, George Agar-Ellis , a Whig politician, proposed to the House of Commons that it purchase the collection. The appeal was given added impetus by Beaumont's offer, which came with two conditions: that the government buy
13888-626: Was a continuation of trends already well established. The building now occupied by the Prado in Madrid was built before the French Revolution for the public display of parts of the royal art collection, and similar royal galleries were opened to the public in Vienna , Munich and other capitals. In Great Britain, however, the corresponding Royal Collection remained in the private hands of
14012-547: Was bought in its entirety by Catherine the Great ; it is now to be found in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg . A plan to acquire 150 paintings from the Orléans collection , which had been brought to London for sale in 1798, also failed, despite the interest of both the King and the Prime Minister, Pitt the Younger . The twenty-five paintings from that collection now in the gallery, including "NG1", arrived later by
14136-610: Was even less well equipped for its next major bequest, as J. M. W. Turner was to bequeath the entire contents of his studio, excepting unfinished works, to the nation upon his death in 1851. The first 20 of these were displayed off-site in Marlborough House in 1856. Ralph Nicholson Wornum , the gallery's Keeper and Secretary, worked with John Ruskin to bring the bequest together. The stipulation in Turner's will that two of his paintings be displayed alongside works by Claude
14260-563: Was for example dismissed as director of the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) in Berlin in 1933 by the new Nazi authorities for not being politically suitable. The question of the place of the art museum in its community has long been under debate. Some see art museums as fundamentally elitist institutions, while others see them as institutions with the potential for societal education and uplift. John Cotton Dana , an American librarian and museum director, as well as
14384-469: Was for them to enter the National Gallery; this was duly arranged upon his death by his friend and successor as director, William Boxall , and his widow Lady Elizabeth Eastlake . One of the most persistent criticisms of the National Gallery, other than of the perceived inadequacies of the building, has been of its conservation policy. The gallery's detractors have accused it of having had an over-zealous approach to restoration. The first cleaning operation at
14508-453: Was involved in the selection of the site and submitted some drawings at the last moment. Wilkins had hoped to build a "Temple of the Arts, nurturing contemporary art through historical example", but the commission was blighted by parsimony and compromise, and the resulting building, which opened to the public on 9 April 1838, was deemed a failure on almost all counts. The site only allowed for
14632-624: Was not long before the 20th-century reaction against Victorian attitudes became manifest at the gallery. From 1928 to 1952, the landing floors of Taylor's entrance hall were relaid with a new series of mosaics by Boris Anrep , who was friendly with the Bloomsbury Group . These mosaics can be read as a satire on 19th-century conventions for the decoration of public buildings, as typified by the Albert Memorial 's Frieze of Parnassus . The central mosaic depicting The Awakening of
14756-475: Was not resolved until 1959. Part of the collection is now on permanent loan to the Hugh Lane Gallery and other works rotate between London and Dublin every few years. A fund for the purchase of modern paintings established by Samuel Courtauld in 1923 bought Seurat 's Bathers at Asnières and other modern works for the nation; in 1934, many of these were transferred to the National Gallery from
14880-494: Was often criticised 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 Sainsbury Wing, a 1991 extension to the west by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown , is a significant example of Postmodernist architecture in Britain. The late 18th century saw the nationalisation of royal or princely art collections across mainland Europe. The Bavarian royal collection (now in
15004-454: Was one of the few national galleries that had all its works on permanent exhibition, but this is no longer the case. The present building, the third site to house the National Gallery, was designed by William Wilkins . Building began in 1832 and it opened to the public in 1838. Only the façade onto Trafalgar Square remains essentially unchanged from this time, as the building has been expanded piecemeal throughout its history. Wilkins's building
15128-564: Was requisitioned for the gallery's use. In the seclusion afforded by the paintings' new location, the Keeper (and future director) Martin Davies began to compile scholarly catalogues on the collection, with assistance of the gallery's library which was also stored in the quarry. The move to Manod confirmed the importance of storing paintings at a constant temperature and humidity, something the gallery's conservators had long suspected but had hitherto been unable to prove. This eventually resulted in
15252-571: Was the Green Vault of the Kingdom of Saxony in the 1720s. Privately funded museums open to the public began to be established from the 17th century onwards, often based around a collection of the cabinet of curiosities type. The first such museum was the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford , opened in 1683 to house and display the artefacts of Elias Ashmole that were given to Oxford University in
15376-494: Was used in the 19th century to protect the surface of paintings but which darkened and discoloured over time, may have resulted in the loss of "harmonising" glazes added to the paintings by the artists themselves. The opposition to Ruhemann's techniques was led by Ernst Gombrich , a professor at the Warburg Institute who in later correspondence with a restorer described being treated with "offensive superciliousness" by
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