The National Gallery marks it’s 200th anniversary with a year of celebrations around the country including a Van Gogh exhibition, a Trafalgar Square festival, and a large-scale digital gallery.
The gallery boasts one of the biggest art collections in the world but actually started off very small with less than 40 paintings.
Compared to other nations in Europe, the UK were behind the times – lots already had flourishing public galleries.
Creators around the country were calling for a similar institution, and in 1824, the government spent £60,000 on the first public gallery: 38 paintings in a modest townhouse on Pall Mall.
In time, this small, dimly-lit venue received much complaint from public and press. Often called ‘inferior’ to other international galleries, the government agreed to stump up the cash for the creation of the pillared building we know today.
Now, 200 years on, the National Gallery is so big it can hold over 2000 London buses.
It is home to 2300 paintings from Italian masters to German modernists.
The National Gallery ceiling
However, only 21 of these were painted by women.
Female creatives were considered oddities through most of the period that the national gallery looks at. They were excluded from positions of power and they were excluded from anything that allowed them to show an independent and creative voice.
The French portrait painter, Elisabeth Vigée le Brun, whose work features in the gallery, wasn’t allowed formal training, despite operating as a professional artist when she was 15. She went on to become the portrait painter to Marie Antoinette and features in galleries worldwide.
Critics claim, painter Rosa Bonheur, had to dress, act and paint like a man in order to become successful. For her painting, ‘The Horse Fair’, she had to get permission from the local police to wear trousers so that she could work undisturbed in the all male environment of the horse market.
A notable milestone
For its 200th anniversary today, the National Gallery have planned a year long celebration.
A new Van Gogh exhibition comes exactly 100 years after the gallery acquired his paintings, ‘Van Gogh’s Chair’ and ‘Sunflowers’.
Throughout August, there’ll be an outside festival in Trafalgar Square, called Summer on the Square, which will bring the gallery’s collection to the Streets of Westminster.
And, more nationally, 12 exhibitions will open today around the country, each focused on a National Gallery masterpiece.
HeadlineThe National Gallery marks it’s 200th anniversary
Short HeadlineNational Gallery marks 200 year anniversary
StandfirstA year long celebration starts today with a new Van Gogh exhibition for the gallery's anniversary
The National Gallery marks it’s 200th anniversary with a year of celebrations around the country including a Van Gogh exhibition, a Trafalgar Square festival, and a large-scale digital gallery.
The gallery boasts one of the biggest art collections in the world but actually started off very small with less than 40 paintings.
Compared to other nations in Europe, the UK were behind the times – lots already had flourishing public galleries.
Creators around the country were calling for a similar institution, and in 1824, the government spent £60,000 on the first public gallery: 38 paintings in a modest townhouse on Pall Mall.
In time, this small, dimly-lit venue received much complaint from public and press. Often called ‘inferior’ to other international galleries, the government agreed to stump up the cash for the creation of the pillared building we know today.
Now, 200 years on, the National Gallery is so big it can hold over 2000 London buses.
It is home to 2300 paintings from Italian masters to German modernists.
The National Gallery ceiling
However, only 21 of these were painted by women.
Female creatives were considered oddities through most of the period that the national gallery looks at. They were excluded from positions of power and they were excluded from anything that allowed them to show an independent and creative voice.
The French portrait painter, Elisabeth Vigée le Brun, whose work features in the gallery, wasn’t allowed formal training, despite operating as a professional artist when she was 15. She went on to become the portrait painter to Marie Antoinette and features in galleries worldwide.
Critics claim, painter Rosa Bonheur, had to dress, act and paint like a man in order to become successful. For her painting, ‘The Horse Fair’, she had to get permission from the local police to wear trousers so that she could work undisturbed in the all male environment of the horse market.
A notable milestone
For its 200th anniversary today, the National Gallery have planned a year long celebration.
A new Van Gogh exhibition comes exactly 100 years after the gallery acquired his paintings, ‘Van Gogh’s Chair’ and ‘Sunflowers’.
Throughout August, there’ll be an outside festival in Trafalgar Square, called Summer on the Square, which will bring the gallery’s collection to the Streets of Westminster.
And, more nationally, 12 exhibitions will open today around the country, each focused on a National Gallery masterpiece.
