National Gallery, London

The National Gallery is an art gallery in London, located on the north side of Trafalgar Square. It holds the National Collection of Art from 1250 to 1900 (subsequent art from the National Collection is housed in Tate Modern). Some British art is included, but the National Collection of British art from this period is mainly in Tate Britain. The collection of 2,300 paintings belongs to the British public, and entry to the main collection is free, though there are charges for entry to special exhibitions.

The Building

The building on Trafalgar Square was begun in 1837 by William Wilkins. Wilkins's creativity faced a number of constraints, not least having to incorporate columns from the portico of the demolished Carlton House into his façade. Required to house both the National Gallery and the Royal Academy, the building was too small from the beginning. The Royal Academy moved to its present home in Burlington House in 1868, but still the collection continued to grow and required more space. Between 1872 and 1876 an East Wing was added by the classical architect Edward Middleton Barry, and his octagonal vestibule remains the grandest part of the Victorian building. Despite continually being added to piecemeal throughout the following century, the symmetrical plan envisaged by Barry has remained remarkably intact. His rooms were re-roofed and beautifully restored to their original colour scheme in 1985-1986 by the architects Gordon Bowyer & Partners, funded by the first tranche of the John Paul Getty Foundation's huge donation. This kick-started a programme of restoring the entire interior of the principal floor, continued and completed under Purcell Miller Tritton & Partners.

Related Topics:
1837 - William Wilkins - Carlton House - Royal Academy - Burlington House - 1868 - 1872 - 1876 - Edward Middleton Barry - 1985 - 1986

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The most important addition to the building in recent years has been the Sainsbury Wing, designed by the leading postmodernist architect Robert Venturi to house the collection of Renaissance paintings and built in 1991. Building on the site had been delayed after Prince Charles infamously denounced a still evolving design for a modernist extension to the gallery by the architects Ahrends, Burton and Koralek as "a monstrous carbuncle on the face of an elegant and much-loved friend". It is unsurprising, then, that the Sainsbury Wing is subdued by Venturi's standards, superficially blending in with the Wilkins façade whilst offering a quirky comment on classical architectural idiom. The interior links with the gallery's historic rooms in a single continuous vista. Although the Sainsbury Wing was a critical success at the time of its opening, as the National Gallery has begun to mount ever more ambitious exhibitions some critics now consider the exhibition galleries in the basement to be too small.

Related Topics:
Robert Venturi - 1991 - Prince Charles

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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 on Charing Cross Road, which it gave to 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.

Related Topics:
National Portrait Gallery - Charing Cross Road

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