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106-610: The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens , Westminster , Greater London . Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, and Serpentine North, previously known as the Sackler Gallery. The gallery spaces are within five minutes' walk of each other, linked by the bridge over

212-524: 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

318-418: 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

424-627: 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

530-517: 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

636-522: 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

742-578: 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 the government on behalf of the British public, and entry to the main collection is free of charge. Unlike comparable museums in continental Europe,

848-511: 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

954-579: 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

1060-429: A gallery, a kunsthalle is a facility that hosts temporary art exhibitions however does not possess a permanent collection . The art world comprises everyone involved in the production and distribution of fine art. The market for fine art depends upon maintaining its distinction as high culture , although during recent decades the boundary between high and popular culture has been eroded by postmodernism . In

1166-649: A number of locations. Galleries selling the work of recognized artists may occupy space in established commercial areas of a city. New styles in art have historically been attracted to the low rent of marginal neighborhoods. An artist colony existed in Greenwich Village as early as 1850, and the tenements built around Washington Square Park to house immigrants after the Civil War also attracted young artists and avant-garde art galleries. The resulting gentrification prompted artists and galleries to move to

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1272-528: 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,

1378-576: 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

1484-571: 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

1590-551: 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

1696-457: 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

1802-607: 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

1908-657: Is a unique commodity, the artist has a monopoly on production, which ceases when the artist either dies or stops working. Some businesses operate as vanity galleries , charging artists a fee to exhibit their work. Lacking a selection process to assure the quality of the artworks, and having little incentive to promote sales, vanity galleries are avoided as unprofessional. Some non-profit organizations or local governments host art galleries for cultural enrichment and to support local artists. Non-profit organizations may start as exhibit spaces for artist collectives , and expand into full-fledged arts programs. Other non-profits include

2014-644: 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

2120-563: Is that while maintaining their urban establishments, galleries also participate in art fairs such as Art Basel and Frieze Art Fair . Art galleries are the primary connection between artists and collectors . At the high end of the market, a handful of elite auction houses and dealers sell the work of celebrity artists; at the low end artists sell their work from their studio, or in informal venues such as restaurants. Point-of-sale galleries connect artists with buyers by hosting exhibitions and openings. The artworks are on consignment, with

2226-510: Is used to refer to establishments with distinct social and economic functions, both public and private. Institutions that preserve a permanent collection may be called either "gallery of art" or "museum of art". If the latter, the rooms where art is displayed within the museum building are called galleries. Art galleries that do not maintain a collection are either commercial enterprises for the sale of artworks, or similar spaces operated by art cooperatives or non-profit organizations . As part of

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2332-666: 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

2438-560: 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

2544-598: 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

2650-496: The Middle Ages that preceded, painters and sculptors were members of guilds, seeking commissions to produce artworks for aristocratic patrons or churches. The establishment of academies of art in the 16th century represented efforts by painters and sculptors to raise their status from mere artisans who worked with their hands to that of the classical arts such as poetry and music, which are purely intellectual pursuits. However,

2756-475: The Museum of Modern Art and National Museum of Western Art ). However, establishments that display art for other purposes, but serve no museum functions, are only called art galleries. The distinctive function of a museum is the preservation of artifacts with cultural, historical, and aesthetic value by maintaining a collection of valued objects. Art museums also function as galleries that display works from

2862-513: The Serpentine Lake from which the galleries get their names. Their exhibitions, architecture, education and public programmes attract up to 1.2 million visitors a year. Admission to both galleries is free. The CEO is Bettina Korek , and the artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist . Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, was established in 1970 and is housed in a Grade II listed former tea pavilion built in 1933–34 by

2968-730: 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 a variety of routes. In 1799, the dealer Noël Desenfans offered

3074-667: 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

3180-497: The art world , art galleries play an important role in maintaining the network of connections between artists, collectors, and art experts that define fine art . The terms 'art museum' and 'art gallery' may be used interchangeably as reflected in the names of institutions around the world, some of which are called galleries (e.g. the National Gallery and Neue Nationalgalerie ), and some of which are called museums (e.g.

3286-531: 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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3392-482: 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

3498-509: 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

3604-724: 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

3710-497: 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

3816-500: 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

3922-563: 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

4028-464: 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,

4134-537: 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

4240-494: 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

4346-490: 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

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4452-456: 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, the gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, especially Charles Lock Eastlake , and by private donations, which now account for two-thirds of

4558-404: 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 was often criticised for the perceived weaknesses of its design and for its lack of space; the latter problem led to

4664-494: 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

4770-482: 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

4876-609: 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

4982-487: 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

5088-496: The addition of an extension designed by Zaha Hadid Architects . Located five minutes' walk from Serpentine South across the Serpentine Bridge, it comprises 900 square metres (9,700 sq ft) of gallery space, restaurant, shop and social space. The Magazine Restaurant adjoins the gallery space. Every year since 2000, Serpentine has commissioned a temporary summer pavilion by a leading architect. The series presents

5194-413: The adjacent neighborhood "south of Houston" ( SoHo ) which became gentrified in turn. Attempting to recreate this natural process, arts districts have been created intentionally by local governments in partnership with private developers as a strategy for revitalizing neighborhoods. Such developments often include spaces for artists to live and work as well as galleries. A contemporary practice has been

5300-441: 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

5406-447: The architect James Grey West . Notable artists whose works have been exhibited there include Man Ray , Henry Moore , Jean-Michel Basquiat , Andy Warhol , Paula Rego , Sondra Perry , Bridget Riley , Allan McCollum , Anish Kapoor , Christian Boltanski , Philippe Parreno , Richard Prince , Wolfgang Tillmans , Gerhard Richter , Gustav Metzger , Damien Hirst , Maria Lassnig , Adrian Berg , Jeff Koons and Marina Abramović . On

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5512-411: 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

5618-412: The art market. Art dealers, through their galleries, have occupied a central role in the art world by bringing many of these factors together; such as "discovering" new artists, promoting their associations in group shows, and managing market valuation. Exhibitions of art operating similar to current galleries for marketing art first appeared in the early modern period , approximately 1500 to 1800 CE. In

5724-549: The artist and the gallery splitting the proceeds from each sale. Depending upon the expertise of the gallery owner and staff, and the particular market, the artwork shown may be more innovative or more traditional in style and media. Galleries may deal in the primary market of new works by living artists, or the secondary markets for works from prior periods owned by collectors, estates, or museums. The periods represented include Old Masters , Modern (1900–1950), and contemporary (1950–present). Modern and contemporary may be combined in

5830-409: The arts as part of other missions, such as providing services to low-income neighborhoods. Historically, art world activities have benefited from clustering together either in cities or in remote areas offering natural beauty. The proximity of art galleries facilitated an informal tradition of art show openings on the same night, which have become officially coordinated as " first Friday events " in

5936-521: 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

6042-509: 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

6148-456: The case of historical works, or Old Masters this distinction is maintained by the work's provenance ; proof of its origin and history. For more recent work, status is based upon the reputation of the artist. Reputation includes both aesthetic factors; art schools attended, membership in a stylistic or historical movement, the opinions of art historians and critics; and economic factors; inclusion in group and solo exhibitions and past success in

6254-447: The category of Post-war art; while contemporary may be limited to the 21st century or "emerging artists". An enduring model for contemporary galleries was set by Leo Castelli . Rather than simply being the broker for sales, Castelli became actively involved in the discovery and development of new artists, while expecting to remain an exclusive agent for their work. However he also focused exclusively on new works, not participating in

6360-455: 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

6466-626: 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

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6572-475: 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 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

6678-406: 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,

6784-499: 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

6890-399: 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

6996-404: 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

7102-507: 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,

7208-529: 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 was bought in its entirety by Catherine the Great ; it is now to be found in

7314-482: 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 the Alte Pinakothek , Munich) opened to

7420-420: 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

7526-399: 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

7632-469: 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

7738-531: The first indications of modern values regarding art; art as an investment versus pure aesthetics, and the increased attention to living artists as an opportunity for such investment. Commercial galleries owned or operated by an art dealer or "gallerist" occupy the middle tier of the art market , accounting for most transactions, although not those with the highest monetary values. Once limited to major urban art worlds such as New York, Paris and London, art galleries have become global. Another trend in globalization

7844-528: 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

7950-454: 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

8056-444: 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,

8162-462: 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

8268-570: 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

8374-408: 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

8480-561: 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

8586-516: The ground at the gallery's entrance is a permanent work made by Ian Hamilton Finlay in collaboration with Peter Coates, and dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales , the gallery's former patron. In 2013, Serpentine North was opened to the public named as the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, a name changed to Serpentine North in 2021. This gave new life to The Magazine, a Grade II* listed former gunpowder store built in 1805, with

8692-472: 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,

8798-544: 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,

8904-458: 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

9010-456: The museum's own collection or on loan from the collections of other museums. Museums might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions on access. Although primarily concerned with visual art , art museums are often used as a venue for other cultural exchanges and artistic activities where the art object is replaced by practices such as performance art , dance, music concerts, or poetry readings. Similar to

9116-592: 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

9222-504: 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

9328-471: The public exhibition of art had to overcome the bias against commercial activity, which was deemed beneath the dignity of artists in many European societies. Commercial art galleries were well-established by the Victorian era , made possible by the increasing number of people seeking to own objects of cultural and aesthetic value. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century there were also

9434-815: 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 the opportunity to buy an art collection of international stature, when

9540-434: The resale of older work by the same artists. All art sales after the first are part of the secondary market, in which the artist and the original dealer are not involved. Many of these sales occur privately between collectors, or works are sold at auctions. However some galleries participate in the secondary market depending upon the market conditions. As with any market, the major conditions are supply and demand. Because art

9646-447: 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

9752-404: 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

9858-449: 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

9964-558: 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,

10070-496: 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

10176-702: The use of vacant commercial space for art exhibitions that run for periods from a single day to a month. Now called "popup galleries", a precursor was Artomatic which had its first event in 1999 and has occurred periodically to the present, mainly in the Washington metro area . National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster , in Central London , England. Founded in 1824, it houses

10282-435: 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

10388-626: The work of an international architect or design team who has not completed a building in England at the time of the Gallery's invitation. Each Pavilion is completed within six months and is situated on the Serpentine South's lawn for three months for the public to explore. Art galleries Among the modern reasons art may be displayed are aesthetic enjoyment, education , historic preservation , or for marketing purposes. The term

10494-453: 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

10600-610: 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

10706-469: 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

10812-453: 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

10918-624: 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

11024-475: 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

11130-564: 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

11236-494: 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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