How to visit and what to see at the National Gallery in London: schedules

In your tourist trip to London You may not have much time to dedicate to visiting the National Gallery, most important british art gallery, which you find in the central plaza of Trafalgar Square.

You should know that a great advantage that National Gallery is that it is not a macro museum, in the style of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Paris Louvre, or own British Museum of London.

In fact, it has no more than 2.300 works, but the collection is characterized by its variety of periods and artists and its high artistic level.

Curiosities history of the National Gallery of London

La National Gallery of London has its origin in a private collection of only 38 paintings, with works by Titian, Rubens y Rembrandt, which acquired the British Government in 1824.

Then the construction of a museum was undertaken to house these and other paintings that were acquired over time.

Thus, in 1838 the building that we can now visit in Trafalgar Square.

Said building of the National Gallery It is architectural style neoclassic and extends along the north side of this famous London square.

It is 140 meters long, with two wings that meet in the center in a portico with classical columns and a large central vault.

El objetivo the National Gallery, with its acquisitions of artistic works, was to constitute a national gallery of paintings, in the image and likeness of how a library is created, offering the widest possible variety of artistic works.

The result is that the greatest artistic wealth of the National Gallery They are found in the collections of the Renacimiento Italian and in dutch painting of the 17th century, and specifically, of Rembrandt.

But when you visit the art gallery, you can see works from the 1900th century to XNUMX.

What to see when visiting the National Gallery in London

For visit the collection of the National Gallery in London You will move through a single floor, where you will find the works grouped by era.

In this way you will walk through different rooms with works from the 13th to the 15th century; from the 16th century; 17th century; and from the 18th century and early 20th century.

The best of the collection of the National Gallery in London

Yes for you visit of the National Gallery You don't have much time and you don't want to miss seeing his main artistic works, on the website of the National Gallery Do you have information about the 30 paintings you can't miss.

These are paintings, among others, of Titian, Cezanne, Seurat, Monet, Van Dyck, Ingres, Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Van Eyck, Michelangelo, Turner, Constable, Caravaggio, Da Vinci and Velázquez.

Specifically, the outstanding work of the Spanish painter Velázquez es The Venus of the Mirror, although in the National Gallery You can see a total of ten paintings by said artist.

In the information of these 30 essential works from the National Gallery You can see which room each of them is in.

National Gallery London opening hours

The Visiting hours of the National Gallery in London They are every day of the week, from 10 a.m. to 18 p.m., except on Fridays, when the hours are from 10 a.m. to 21 p.m.

To note that the Entry to the National Gallery is free.

Virtual Tour of the National Gallery

To get a first look at this great art gallery, now you have the opportunity to take a virtual tour of the National Gallery with the Google Art Project application.

Google Art Project is an ambitious application launched by Google what to do virtual tours of a good part of the most prestigious museums in the world.

In your virtual tour of the National Gallery in London From the outset you have the possibility of virtually moving around the Central Room.

But you can also virtually visit various rooms dedicated to German, Venetian, Dutch, Titian and Beuckelaer.

In addition to being able to visit the rooms, the main functionality of Google Art Project is the possibility of see in great detail more than a hundred paintings exhibited in these rooms.

So for each one of them you have extensive complementary data, such as its characteristics, information on both the author and his painting, videos, etc...

In this application Google, in each of the museums a work has been selected of which a very high resolution image, which allows you to appreciate even the smallest details of the painting.

In the case of the National Gallery of London the featured work is The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein the Younger.

In the virtual tour of the National Gallery You can also see paintings, among others, of Rubens, Tintoretto, Titian, Pablo Veronese, Beuchelaer, Vincenzo Catena, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Cézanne, Domenichino, Lorenzo Lotto, and Moretto of Brescia.