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National Gallery,
London
Established in 1824 and located in Trafalgar Square, the museum holds
the British state collection of artworks produced before 1900, and by
UK artists born before 1790. The permanent collection of the National
Gallery London contains nearly 2,500 paintings, and features a large
number of top masterpieces by Old Masters
like Jan Van Eyck, Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello, Botticelli, Leonardo
da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Diego Velazquez, Hans Holbein,
Vermeer and Van Dyck. British painters represented include Hogarth, Gainsborough,
Turner, Stubbs, Joseph Wright of Derby, John Constable, and many others.
The National Gallery attracts more than 4.5 million visitors per year,
placing it among the world's most popular art museums.
National Portrait
Gallery, London
The National Portrait
Gallery London features a wide range of historical portrait art of
British people (including caricatures and photographs as well as paintings,
drawings, sketches and busts), by portraitists such as William Hogarth,
Joshua Reynolds and Hans Holbein the younger, among many others. Important
items include the Chandos portrait, the most celebrated portrait of William
Shakespeare. The Gallery organizes the annual BP Portrait Prize competition.
In Scotland, portrait art is displayed at the Scottish National Portrait
Gallery in Edinburgh.
National Gallery
of Scotland, Edinburgh
Opened in 1859, the museum is the national art gallery of Scotland. Masterpieces
on display include: Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child by Sandro
Botticelli, Dedham Vale by Constable, The Hon. Mrs Graham by Thomas Gainsborough,
The Vision after the Sermon by Paul Gauguin, a series of works by Turner,
among many others. For details, see: National
Gallery of Scotland.
Saatchi Gallery
London
Owned by businessman and philanthropist Charles Saatchi, it is one of
Europe's best galleries of contemporary art,
and has been a major influence on the development of avant-garde art in
Britain. Its exhibitions have featured Minimalism, Young British Artists,
postmodernist art as well as the best
of Chinese contemporary painting. Artists shown include: Brice Marden,
Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Sol Lewitt, Frank Stella, Anselm Kiefer, Richard
Serra, Jeff Koons, Philip Guston, Bruce Nauman, Frank Auerbach, Lucian
Freud, Cindy Sherman, Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread and others. See:
Saatchi Gallery.
Tate Britain
London
The first gallery to be established within the Tate network, it opened
in 1897 as the National Gallery of British Art. Its collection includes
works by Hogarth, William Blake, John Constable, John William Waterhouse,
John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, JMW Turner, Francis Bacon,
Henry Moore, and others.
Tate Modern
Housed in the former Bankside Power Station, it is Britain's leading museum
of international modern art. Its sister gallery of contemporary/avant-garde
art is the Tate Liverpool. Other regional venues within the group
include the Tate St Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum. For details,
see: Tate Museums.
Victoria and Albert
Museum London (V&A)
The world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, its permanent
collection consists of more than 4.5 million objects. Named after Queen
Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, it was established in 1852. Featured
in its world renowned collections are: glass, ceramics, textiles and tapestries,
costumes, silver, metalwork, jewellery, prints and printmaking, drawings
and photographs. The museum also holds the world's largest assembly of
post-classical sculpture: highlights include works by Donatello, Andrea
del Verrocchio, Michelangelo, Tilman Riemenschneider, Alessandro Algardi,
Benvenuto Cellini, Giambologna, Bernini, Canova, Francois Girardon, Michel
Clodion, Jean-Antoine Houdon, Auguste Rodin, and Grinling Gibbons, to
name but a few. Its Asian and East Asian collections of pottery and sculpture
are among the finest in Europe, while its holdings of Islamic art rank
with the Musee du Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
For details, see: Victoria
and Albert Museum (V&A).
Walker Art Gallery,
Liverpool
Named after its founder Sir Andrew Barclay Walker (1824-1893), mayor of
Liverpool and wealthy Scottish brewer, and known as "The National
Gallery of Northern England", the museum opened in 1877. Its permanent
collection contains a fine selection of Italian and Netherlandish paintings,
18th and 19th century British art - notably, a major collection of Victorian
painting and Pre-Raphaelite oils, a series of prints and drawings, plus
works by artists such as Lucian Freud, David Hockney and Gilbert and George.
The Gallery organizes the biennial John Moores Painting Prize.
Wallace Collection,
London
Founded in 1897, the museum contains a superb collection of decorative
art including gold boxes, Italian maiolica ceramics, glass, bronzes and
Limoges enamels, arms and armour, and furniture. It is especially renowned
for its collections of Sevres and Meissen porcelain. In addition, it owns
a world famous collection of Old Master oil paintings, watercolours and
works on paper.
Best Art Museums
in France (Dijon, Lille, Paris, Strasbourg)
Musee Magnin, Dijon,
France
Contains 1,500 high-quality works by Flemish, Italian and French artists
(1600-1900) plus a selection of exquisite drawings.
Palais des Beaux-Arts
de Lille
Opened in 1809, the museum contains the second largest art collection
in France after the Louvre. Encompassing Antiquities, Gothic, Renaissance,
Baroque, Paintings from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, as well as
sculpture, the collection features numerous artists from the Low Countries
(Flanders, Belgium and the Netherlands) and Northern France including:
Van Dyck, Jordaens, Rembrandt, Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Dirk Bouts, Barthel
Bruyn, Joos van Cleve, Jacob Cornelisz van Amsterdam, Jean Bellegambe,
Jan Sanders van Hemessen, Pieter Boel, Pieter van Avont, Jan Boeckorst,
Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert, Theodor Boeyermans, Philippe de Champaigne,
Jan Cossiers, Gaspard de Crayer, Pieter Lastman, Johann Liss, Jeremias
Mittendorff, Jacques Stella, Theodoor van Thulden, Simon de Vos, Arnould
de Vuez, Emanuel de Witte, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Amaury Duval, Alfred
Agache, Louis Leopold Boilly, and Alphonse Colas.
Pompidou Centre
World renowned for its unique postmodernist architecture - which, according
to the New York Times, turned the architecture world upside down - the
Georges Pompidou Centre is home to France's national museum of modern
and contemporary art and promoter of contemporary art movements. For more
details, see: Pompidou Cenre.
Pompidou Centre Branches Out to Metz
The Parisian Pompidou Centre, home to the 65,000-item National Collection
of Modern Art, has opened a branch in the city, called the Pompidou
Metz. French art authorities hope to replicate the success of the
Bilbao branch of New York's Guggenheim museum, which has transformed
the fortunes of Bilbao in northern Spain since its opening in 1997.
The project is the first stage in an effort to decentralise France's
huge art collection: the next stage involves the opening of a branch
of the Louvre in Lens, near the Channel Tunnel. Meantime, the Pompidou
Metz will be devoted to both modern and contemporary art, from the
20th and 21st-century, presented in a series of rotating art exhibitions.
Louvre Museum Paris
One of the world's oldest, largest and most popular museums, its permanent
collection includes over 2 million works of art, covering: Prehistoric
artifacts; Antiquities from Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome; Chinese, Japanese
and Asian cultures; Western Art treasures from the Byzantine to the Modern
era. Its fine arts collection features a vast range of sculpture, works
on paper and painting, including items from the Gothic, Italian Renaissance,
Northern Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, Romantic, and Realist
styles and movements. For details, see: Louvre
Museum Paris.
Musee Conde, Chantilly
World famous for its chateau gallery and library. Highlights include Les
Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1413) by the Limbourg Brothers, and
the Book of Hours of Etienne Chevalier by Jean Fouquet. See Musee
Conde, Chantilly.
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Opened in 1986, the museum concentrates on French art dating from 1848
to 1914, and features painting, sculpture, and photography. It is best-known
for its masterpieces of French Impressionism which were previously housed
in the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, prior to the museum's opening
in 1986. Collection highlights include: Starry Night Over the Rhone, by
Vincent Van Gogh; Bal au moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir;
Dejeuner sur L'Herbe by Edouard Manet, and other Impressionist painters.
For details, including collection highlights, see: Musee
d'Orsay Paris.
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