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National Gallery
The National Gallery is the home of the national
collection of Western European paintings from 1250 to the 1900's and
includes masterpieces by many of the great artists. Its creation came
about when the House of Commons paid £57,000 to purchase a 38
picture collection from John Julius Angerstein in 1824, which were
initially on view in his house until the Gallery moved to Trafalgar
Square. It has become a world-class collection including works by:
Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli, Raphael, Michelangelo, Rembrandt,
Rubens, Turner, Van Gogh and Picasso.
National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery was founded in 1856 and
was intended to record the likeness of famous British men and women.
This extensive collection is now the most comprehensive of its type in
the world. The busts you will see at the museums entrance are those of
its three founders, Philip Henry Stanhope, Thomas Babington Macaulay
and Thomas Carlyle. The criteria of this collection is that the gallery
was to be about history and not art, about the sitter not the quality
of the finished result.
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