National Gallery, London

Inevitably, any visitor to London will encounter a day of bad weather. I did on my last full day in town, and I used it to my advantage by going to the National Gallery, which is located on Trafalgar Square. The National Gallery has a great collection of works stretching from about 1200-1900. I especially remember their Italian Renaissance and Dutch paintings, but there is a great selection from around Europe during that time frame. If you are pressed for time, the handout you get at thefront entrance points out some of the highlight, like Boticellis or Rembrandts that you shouldn't leave without seeing.
This picture of the National Gallery was taken on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, which explains the mock clipper sails attached to the building -- they're not there all the time. It also explains the crowd -- don't worry, they're not lined up to get in the Gallery; they're waiting for fireworks.

One of my favourite museums, it has an interesting impressionist and an Italian areas. How long it will take you to visit it, it would depend on how many days are you going to be in London, if you just go for the day, get the map and decide which rooms are you really interested in visiting, I remember my first visit, I had only one hour and only had time for just a few rooms, after quite a few visits I still had not managed to see it all.


Back to Trafalgar square and direction to Buckingham

National gallery is open all year round with different art exhibitions, ongoing cleections and, cafes and a gift shop.

The entrance is free however, special exhibitons might be subject to a fee.

If a summer summer weekend, you might be surprised with a concert or a show. Or a protest even!

My favorite place in London, and one of my favorite museums in the world!

Enjoy each masterpiece from different periods and different parts of the world. Great collection of Constable and Turner's paintings.

They constantly switch the display, you'll find something new everytime you visit.

Our group made a quick stop into the National Gallery in London. Admission is free, although donation boxes are readily available. The permanent collection includes one of the four Van Gogh “Sunflower” paintings, Raphaels’ “The Madonna of the Pinks,” Ruben’s “Samson and Delilah,” Caravaggio’s “The Supper at Emmaus,” and many other famous works—more than 2,300 works at the moment.
During our June 2005 visit, John Virtue’s London landscape pictures were featured in an exhibit. Virtue’s acrylic, black ink and shellac on canvas display sooty London-like images.

The National Gallery is a wonderful place with an interesting history. It started with 38 major paintings, a small start for a national collection. Many wealthy benefactors contributed money and works of art, which has resulted in a huge, impressive collection today.

Other paintings were purchased by public subscription or by government grant. It's grown so large that a new addition was added in the early 1990s (not without controversy!) In this new wing called, The Sainsbury Wing, is where the changing exhibits are kept.

I have to tell you that this place is quite overwhelming, seeing so many pieces of art done by the great masters of Western art such as Leonardo, Goya, Monet, VAn Gogh, Picasso, and Raphael (which is just the beginning of a endless number of greats!)

The paintings hang chronologically, which is a nice way to organize such a vast collection. The lower floor contains lesser painting of all periods.

Open:
10-6 daily
10-8 Wednesday

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I knew I would not have the stamina to see all of the many museums in London. So I picked out two or three to visit. The British Museum was a MUST of course. I also wanted Bob to see some of what I regard as the landmark English painters and particular English landscapes.

So I took Bob up to see Constable's pictures of Salisbury Cathedral (which was also on my list of things to see - I looked the locations of the pictures up on the internet before we came), and also some of Turner's pictures because he's an English painter who worked in England and I really liked his work.

The enormous horse (9 foot tall) painting by Stubbs of the stallion Whistlejacket (which is so realistic that the stallion himself is supposed to have thought it was a rival) which was painted in 1762 was in the same room with the Turners and the Constables. I thought the stallion looked pained and worried.

We also spent some serindipitous time on Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode series which was painted in 1743 (although we accidentally started to look at the pictures from the end rather than the beginning)

The Marriage Contract.
Shortly After the Marriage.
The Countess's Morning Levee.
The Visit to the Quack Doctor.
The Death of the Earl..
The Suicide of the Countess.

Hogarth was the cartoonist of his day. According to his biography, he "..invented and popularized the use of a sequence of anecdotal pictures 'similar to representations on the stage' to point a moral and satirize social abuses. A Harlot's Progress (6 scenes, c. 1731; destroyed by fire) was followed by A Rake's Progress (8 scenes, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, c. 1735), and Marriage à la Mode (6 scenes, National Gallery, London, c. 1743), which each portray the punishment of vice in a somewhat lurid melodrama. Each series was painted with a view to being engraved, and the engravings had a wide sale and were popular with all classes. They were much pirated and Hogarth's campaigning against the profiteers led to the Copyright Act of 1735. "

With more than 2000 Western European paintings on display, the National Gallery is one of the largest galleries in the world. Almost five million people visit the gallery each year, keen to see seminal paintings from every important epoch in the history of art, including works y Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Tition, Velazquez, Van Gogh and Renoir.
open 10am-6pm Thursday – Tuesday, 10am-9pm Wednesday