National Gallery of Scotland
Encyclopedia
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, is the national art gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
of Scotland. An elaborate neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
edifice, it stands on The Mound
The Mound
The Mound is an artificial hill in central Edinburgh, Scotland, which connects Edinburgh's New Town and Old Town. It was formed by dumping around 1,501,000 cartloads of earth excavated from the foundations of the New Town into the drained Nor Loch which forms today's Princes Street Gardens. The...
, between the two sections of Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens
Princes Street Gardens
Princes Street Gardens is a public park in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. The Gardens were created in the 1820s following the long draining of the Nor Loch and the creation of the New Town. The Nor Loch was a large loch in the centre of the city. It was...
. The building, which was designed by William Henry Playfair
William Henry Playfair
William Henry Playfair FRSE was one of the greatest Scottish architects of the 19th century, designer of many of Edinburgh's neo-classical landmarks in the New Town....
, first opened to the public in 1859.
The National Gallery shares the Mound with the Royal Scottish Academy Building
Royal Scottish Academy Building
The Royal Scottish Academy Building, situated in the centre of Edinburgh, was designed by William Henry Playfair during the 19th century. Along with the adjacent National Gallery of Scotland, their neo-classical design helped transform Edinburgh in to a modern day Athens of the North.The building...
. In 1912 both were remodelled by William Thomas Oldrieve. When it re-opened, the gallery concentrated on building its permanent collection of Scottish and European art for the nation.
The research facilities at the National Gallery include the Prints and Drawings Collection of over 30,000 works on paper, from the early Renaissance to the late nineteenth century; and the reference-only Research Library, which is open to the general public. The Research Library covers the period from 1300 to 1900 and holds approximately 50,000 volumes of books, journals, slides, and microfiches, as well as some archival material relating to the collections, exhibitions and history of the National Gallery. It is advisable to contact the Print Room or Research Library prior to visiting to ensure staff and space availability.
The Weston Link, an underground interconnection between the two buildings and the final phase of the Playfair Project
Playfair Project
The Playfair Project created an underground link between the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy Building. The project was named after William Henry Playfair, the original designer of both buildings...
, opened August 2004. This contains a lecture theatre, education area, shop, restaurant and an interactive, touch-screen IT Gallery showing the collections of the National Galleries. Between the two buildings is a modern square, affording views of Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
and Princes Street
Princes Street
Princes Street is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, and its main shopping street. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1 mile from Lothian Road in the west to Leith Street in the east. The street is mostly closed to private...
.
Collection
At the heart of the National Gallery's collection is a group of paintings transferred from the Royal Scottish AcademyRoyal Scottish Academy
The Royal Scottish Academy is a Scottish organisation that promotes contemporary Scottish art. Founded in 1826, as the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, the RSA maintains a unique position in Scotland as an independently funded institution led by eminent artists and...
Building. This includes masterpieces by Jacopo Bassano
Jacopo Bassano
Jacopo Bassano , known also as Jacopo dal Ponte, was an Italian painter who was born and died in Bassano del Grappa near Venice, from which he adopted the name.- Life :...
, Van Dyck and Giambattista Tiepolo. The National Gallery did not receive its own purchase grant until 1903.
Key works of art displayed at the National Gallery include:
- Gian Lorenzo BerniniGian Lorenzo BerniniGian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect...
, Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo and Design for a Papal Monument - Sandro BotticelliSandro BotticelliAlessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance...
, Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child - Antonio CanovaAntonio CanovaAntonio Canova was an Italian sculptor from the Republic of Venice who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nude flesh...
, The Three Graces (displayed on rotation with the Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
in London) - Paul CézannePaul CézannePaul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
, The Big Trees and Montagne Sainte-Victoire - Jean Siméon Chardin, Vase of Flowers
- John ConstableJohn ConstableJohn Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection...
, Dedham Vale - Gerard DavidGerard DavidGerard David was an Early Netherlandish painter and manuscript illuminator known for his brilliant use of color.-Life:...
, Three Legends of St Nicholas - Edgar DegasEdgar DegasEdgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
, Portrait of Diego Martelli - James DrummondJames Drummond (artist)James Drummond RSA was an artist and the curator of the National Gallery of Scotland from 1868 to 1877. He was born in 1816, in John Knox House in the Royal Mile, Edinburgh.-References:...
, The Porteous Mob and A Lady Descending from a Sedan Chair. Study for the Painting The Porteous Mob - Antoon van Dyck, The Lomellini Family
- Thomas GainsboroughThomas GainsboroughThomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
, The Hon. Mrs Graham' - Paul GauguinPaul GauguinEugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
, Vision after the SermonVision After the SermonVision after the Sermon is an oil painting by French artist Paul Gauguin in 1888. It is now in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. It depicts a scene from The Bible, where Jacob wrestles an angel. It depicts this indirectly, through a vision or hallucination that the women depicted see... - Hugo van der GoesHugo van der GoesHugo van der Goes was a Flemish painter. He was, along with Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Gerard David, one of the most important of the Early Netherlandish painters.-Biography:...
, The Trinity Altarpiece (on loan from the Royal CollectionRoyal CollectionThe Royal Collection is the art collection of the British Royal Family. It is property of the monarch as sovereign, but is held in trust for her successors and the nation. It contains over 7,000 paintings, 40,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 150,000 old master prints, as well as historical...
) - Francisco de Goya, El Medico
- El GrecoEl GrecoEl Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, Saint Jerome in Penitence - El GrecoEl GrecoEl Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, Fábula - El GrecoEl GrecoEl Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, Christ Blessing (The Saviour of the World) - Gavin HamiltonGavin Hamilton (artist)Gavin Hamilton was a Scottish neoclassical history painterwho is more widely remembered for his hunts for antiquities in the neighborhood of Rome...
, Dawkins and Wood Discovering the Ruins of Palmyra - Dominique Ingres, Mlle Albertine Hayard
- Claude MonetClaude MonetClaude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, Haystacks - Nicolas PoussinNicolas PoussinNicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. His work serves as an alternative to the dominant Baroque style of the 17th century...
, The Seven Sacraments - Sir Henry RaeburnHenry RaeburnSir Henry Raeburn was a Scottish portrait painter, the first significant Scottish portraitist since the Act of Union 1707 to remain based in Scotland.-Biography:...
, The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch - Allan RamsayAllan Ramsay (1713-1784)Allan Ramsay was a Scottish portrait-painter.-Life and career:Allan Ramsay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the eldest son of Allan Ramsay, poet and author of The Gentle Shepherd....
, Margaret Lindsay - RaphaelRaphaelRaffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
, Bridgewater Madonna - Rembrandt van Rijn, A Woman in Bed and Self-PortraitSelf-PortraitSelf-Portrait is a 2008 studio album by Swedish artist Jay-Jay Johanson.-Track listing:# "Wonder Wonders" - 5:34# "Lightning Strikes" - 5:15# "Autumn Winter Spring" - 4:57# "Liar" - 0:56# "Trauma" - 5:26# "My Mother's Grave" - 2:54...
- Sir Joshua ReynoldsJoshua ReynoldsSir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
, The Ladies Waldegrave - Pieter Jansz SaenredamPieter Jansz SaenredamPieter Jansz. Saenredam was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, known for his distinctive paintings of whitewashed church interiors.-Biography:...
, San Bavo, Haarlem - Georges Seurat, La Luzerne, St-Denis
- TitianTitianTiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...
, Venus AnadyomeneVenus Anadyomene (Titian)Venus Anadyomene , is a c.1520 oil painting by Titian, depicting Venus rising from the sea and wringing her hair, either after bathing or after her birth. Venus, said to have been born from a shell, is identified by the shell at bottom left...
, Diana and CallistoDiana and CallistoDiana and Callisto is a painting of 1556–59 by the Venetian artist Titian. It is currently part of the Bridgewater or Sutherland Loan, on display at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, with a later version by Titian and his workshop in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna...
, Diana and ActaeonDiana and Actaeon (Titian)Diana and Actaeon is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Titian, finished in 1556–1559, and is considered amongst Titian's greatest works. It portrays the moment in which the goddess Diana meets Actaeon. In 2008–2009, the National Gallery, London and National Gallery of Scotland...
, The Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and an Unidentified Saint, and The Three Ages of ManThe Three Ages of Man (Titian)The Three Ages of Man is a painting by Titian, dated to around 1512 and now displayed at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. The 90 cm by 151 cm High Renaissance art work was most likely influenced by Giorgione’s themes and motifs of landscapes and nude figures--Titian was... - Joseph Mallord William Turner, Somer Hill and the Vaughan Bequest of 38 works
- Diego VelázquezDiego VelázquezDiego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
, An Old Woman Cooking Eggs - Johannes VermeerJohannes VermeerJohannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in exquisite, domestic interior scenes of middle class life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime...
, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary - Antoine WatteauAntoine WatteauJean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement...
, Fêtes venetiènnes
Other artists represented in the collection include:
- David Allan
- Francis BaconFrancis Bacon (painter)Francis Bacon , was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon's painterly but abstract figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds...
- Federico BarocciFederico BarocciFederico Barocci was an Italian Renaissance painter and printmaker. His original name was Federico Fiori, and he was nicknamed Il Baroccio, which still in northwestern Italian dialects means a two wheel cart drawn by oxen...
- William BlakeWilliam BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
- David Young CameronDavid Young CameronSir David Young Cameron was a Scottish painter and etcher.-Biography:Cameron was the son of the Rev. Robert Cameron and was born in Glasgow, Scotland. From around 1881 he studied at the Glasgow School of Art and in 1885 enrolled at the Edinburgh Schools of Art...
- Gustave CourbetGustave CourbetJean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...
- Aelbert CuypAelbert CuypAelbert Jacobsz Cuyp was one of the leading Dutch landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. The most famous of a family of painters, the pupil of his father Jacob Gerritsz...
- Eugène DelacroixEugène DelacroixFerdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
- Domenichino
- Albrecht DürerAlbrecht DürerAlbrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
- William DyceWilliam DyceWilliam Dyce was a distinguished Scottish artist, who played a significant part in the formation of public art education in the UK, as perhaps the true parent of the South Kensington Schools system.Dyce began his career at the Royal Academy schools, and then traveled to Rome for the first time in...
- Adam ElsheimerAdam ElsheimerAdam Elsheimer was a German artist working in Rome who died at only thirty-two, but was very influential in the early 17th century. His relatively few paintings were small scale, nearly all painted on copper plates, of the type often known as cabinet paintings. They include a variety of light...
- John EmmsJohn Emms (artist)John Emms born Norfolk in 1844 – died 1 November 1912 in Lyndhurst, Hampshire was an English artist.-Biography:Emms was also an avid hunter and became famous for equine and canine paintings and exhibited several times at the Royal Academy, beginning in 1866. His paintings are signed “Jno...
- Andrew GeddesAndrew GeddesAndrew Geddes was a Scottish portrait painter and etcher.-Life:Geddes was born in Edinburgh. After receiving a good education in the high school and in the University of Edinburgh, he was for five years in the excise office, in which his father held the post of deputy auditor...
- Vincent van GoghVincent van GoghVincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
- Guercino
- James GuthrieJames Guthrie (artist)Sir James Guthrie was a Scottish painter, best known in his own lifetime for his portraiture, although today more generally regarded as a painter of Scottish Realism.-Life and work:...
- Frans HalsFrans HalsFrans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...
- Meindert HobbemaMeindert HobbemaMeindert Hobbema , was a landscape painter of the Dutch school.-Life:The facts of his life are somewhat obscure. His chronology and signed pictures substantially contradict each other...
- Hans Holbein the YoungerHans Holbein the YoungerHans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...
- Edward Atkinson HornelEdward Atkinson HornelEdward Atkinson Hornel was a Scottish painter of landscapes, flowers, and foliage, with children. He was a cousin of James Hornell....
- Robert Scott LauderRobert Scott LauderRobert Scott Lauder was a Scottish mid-Victorian artist who described himself as a "historical painter". He was one of the original members of the Royal Scottish Academy.-Life and work:...
- Horatio McCullochHoratio McCullochHoratio McCulloch , sometimes written M'Culloch, was a Scottish landscape painter.-Life:...
- William York MacgregorWilliam York MacgregorWilliam York Macgregor was a Scottish landscape painter.Macgregor studied in Glasgow under Robert Greenlees and Docharty and at the Slade School under Alphonse Legros. He joined James Paterson in 1878 and they were co-founders of the Glasgow School...
- William MacTaggartWilliam MacTaggartSir William MacTaggart was a Scottish painter known for his landscapes of East Lothian, France, Norway and elsewhere. He is sometimes called William MacTaggart the Younger to distinguish him from his grandfather, the painter William McTaggart.-Life and work:William MacTaggart was born at Loanhead...
- Lorenzo MonacoLorenzo MonacoLorenzo Monaco was an Italian painter of the late Gothic-early Renaissance age.-Biography:...
- Berthe MorisotBerthe MorisotBerthe Morisot was a painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. She was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt.In 1864, she exhibited for the first...
- John PhillipJohn PhillipJohn Phillip was a Victorian era painter best known for his portrayals of Spanish life. He was nicknamed "Spanish Phillip"....
- Giovanni Battista PiranesiGiovanni Battista PiranesiGiovanni Battista Piranesi was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons" .-His Life:...
- Camille PissarroCamille PissarroCamille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas . His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as he was the only artist to exhibit in both forms...
- David RobertsDavid Roberts (painter)David Roberts RA was a Scottish painter. He is especially known for a prolific series of detailed lithograph prints of Egypt and the Near East that he produced during the 1840s from sketches he made during long tours of the region . These, and his large oil paintings of similar subjects, made him...
- Peter Paul Rubens
- William StrangWilliam StrangWilliam Strang was a renowned Scottish painter and engraver.He was born at Dumbarton, the son of Peter Strang, builder, and educated at the Dumbarton Academy. He worked for fifteen months in the counting-house of a firm of shipbuilders before going to London in 1875 when he was sixteen...
- TintorettoTintorettoTintoretto , real name Jacopo Comin, was a Venetian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso...
- Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
- Sir David WilkieDavid Wilkie (artist)Sir David Wilkie was a Scottish painter.- Early life :Wilkie was the son of the parish minister of Cults in Fife. He developed a love for art at an early age. In 1799, after he had attended school at Pitlessie, Kettle and Cupar, his father reluctantly agreed to his becoming a painter...
- Francisco de Zurbarán