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Scottish National Gallery

April 10, 2024

The National (formerly the Scottish National Gallery) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by William Henry Playfair, and first opened to the public in 1859.[2]

National Galleries Scotland: National
The National building and Royal Scottish Academy building, viewed from the South (2005)
Location within Edinburgh city centre
Former names
Scottish National Gallery, National Gallery of Scotland
Established1859; 165 years ago (1859)
LocationThe Mound, Edinburgh
Coordinates55°57′3″N 3°11′44″W / 55.95083°N 3.19556°W / 55.95083; -3.19556
Visitors1,583,231 (2019)[1]
Public transit access
Websitewww.nationalgalleries.org

The gallery houses Scotland's national collection of fine art, spanning Scottish and international art from the beginning of the Renaissance up to the start of the 20th century.

The National is run by National Galleries Scotland, a public body that also owns the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Because of its architectural similarity, the National is frequently confused by visitors with the neighbouring Royal Scottish Academy Building (RSA), a separate institution which works closely with the National.[3]

History edit

 
Edinburgh Castle and National Gallery (c. 1865)

The origins of Scotland's national collection lie with the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland, founded in 1819. It began to acquire paintings, and in 1828 the Royal Institution building opened on The Mound. In 1826, the Scottish Academy was founded by a group of artists who, dissatisfied with its policies, seceded from the Royal Institution, and in 1838 it became the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA). A key aim of the RSA was the founding of a national collection. It began to build up a collection and from 1835 rented exhibition space within the Royal Institution building.[2]

In the 1840s, plans were put in place for a new building to house the RSA.[2] The noted Scottish architect William Henry Playfair was commissioned to prepare designs, and on 30 August 1850, Prince Albert laid the foundation stone.[4] The building was originally divided along the middle, with the east half housing the exhibition galleries of the RSA, and the western half containing the new National Gallery of Scotland,[4] formed from the collection of the Royal Institution.[2] In 1912 the RSA moved into the Royal Institution building, which remains known as the Royal Scottish Academy Building. When it re-opened, the gallery concentrated on building its permanent collection of Scottish and European art for the nation of Scotland.

In the early 21st century, the National Galleries launched the Playfair Project, a scheme to create a new basement entrance to the National Gallery in Princes Street Gardens and an underground connecting space, called the Weston Link, between the gallery and the renovated Royal Scottish Academy building. The new underground space opened in 2004.[5]

In 2012, the gallery's umbrella organisation, National Galleries of Scotland, underwent a rebranding exercise, and National Gallery of Scotland was renamed the Scottish National Gallery.[6][7]

In 2023, the organisation was rebranded once more, and adopted the shorter name National Galleries Scotland. Each of its galleries was also rebranded and the Scottish National Gallery is now billed as National Galleries Scotland: National.[8]

Building edit

William Playfair's building—like its neighbour, the Royal Scottish Academy—was designed in the form of an Ancient Greek temple. While Playfair designed the RSA in the Doric order, the National Gallery building is in the Ionic order. The main east and west elevations have plain pilastrading with the higher central transverse block having hexastyle Ionic porticoes. Paired Ionic columns in antis are flanked by tetrastyle Ionic porticoes at north and south. The design reflects the building's original dual purpose being divided longitudinally with the exhibition galleries of the RSA to the east and the National Gallery to the west.[3][9][4]

Playfair worked to a much more limited budget than the RSA project, and this is reflected in his comparatively austere architectural style. He may have drawn inspiration from an 1829 scheme for an arcade of shops by Archibald Elliot II, son of Archibald Elliot. Playfair's National Gallery was laid out in a cruciform plan; he originally planned to build towers at the corners of the transverse central block, but these were abandoned during the project. When the RSA moved into the former Royal Institution building in 1912, the Office of Works Architect for Scotland, William Thomas Oldrieve remodelled the NGS interior to house the National Gallery collection exclusively.[9]

In the 1970s, when the gallery was under the direction of the Department of the Environment, the internal accommodation was extended. An upper floor was added at the south end in 1972, creating five new small galleries, and in 1978 a new gallery was opened in the basement to house the Gallery's Scottish Collection.[9][10]

The new Princes Street Gardens entrance and underground space opened in 2004 was designed by John Miller and Partners. Construction took five years and cost £32 million. The area contains a lecture theatre, education area, shop, restaurant, an interactive gallery, and a link to the RSA building.[2][11]

In January 2019, construction work began on a project to alter the lower level areas and to create extended exhibition space. It is planned that the Princes Street Gardens entrance will become the main entrance of the gallery; to facilitate access, East Princes Street Gardens is being re-landscaped with sloping paths and 52 trees have been felled, to be replaced with 22 newly planted saplings.[12][13] The redevelopment is delayed until at least late 2022, as a result of asbestos being found in part of the structure and due to the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.[14][15]

  • Architectural features
  •  
    Twin porticoes at the main entrance with the original name inscribed on the frieze.
  •  
    Playfair's ionic columns
  •  
    Interior of the ground floor main galleries
  •  
    The Princes Street Gardens entrance (opened 2004)

Research edit

The research facilities at the Scottish 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. 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. The Print Room or Research Library can be accessed by appointment.

Collection edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Scottish National Gallery (category)

At the heart of the National Gallery's collection is a group of paintings transferred from the Royal Scottish Academy. This includes masterpieces by Jacopo Bassano, Van Dyck and Giambattista Tiepolo. The National Gallery did not receive its own purchase grant until 1903.

In the Gallery's main ground floor rooms are displayed a number of major large-scale canvases such as Benjamin West's Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag (1786), Rubens's The Feast of Herod (1633 or c.1637-38) and a pair of paintings by Titian, Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto (purchased jointly with the National Gallery, London). The Scottish National Gallery has also jointly acquired one of Canova's sculptures of The Three Graces with the Victoria and Albert Museum.[16]

The Scottish National Gallery has a notable collection of works by Scottish artists, including several landscapes by Alexander Nasmyth, and several works by Sir Henry Raeburn — of particular note his portraits of Alexander Ranaldson Macdonell and Sir Walter Scott), and his celebrated painting, The Skating Minister. There are also a number of works by artists of the Glasgow School such as James Guthrie. The Gallery also holds a collection of works by English painters, such as Constable's The Vale of Dedham and a sizeable collection of water colours by Turner which are traditionally displayed in January. The Monarch of the Glen, a painting considered to depict the grandeur of the wildlife and scenery of the Scottish Highlands, is also held in the gallery, the work of the English painter Sir Edwin Landseer.[16]

Notable works edit

Key works of art displayed at the National Gallery include:

Other artists represented in the collection include:

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "ALVA - Association of Leading Visitor Attractions". www.alva.org.uk. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e . Archived from the original on 7 February 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  3. ^ a b Campbell, Donald (2003). Edinburgh: A Cultural and Literary History. Signal Books. p. 120. ISBN 9781902669731. Retrieved 12 April 2018. national gallery of scotland edinburgh greek temple#.
  4. ^ a b c Historic Environment Scotland. "1 THE MOUND, NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOTLAND WITH RAILINGS (Category A Listed Building) (LB27679)". Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  5. ^ "Playfair Project". National Galleries of Scotland. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
  6. ^ Potter, MatthewC (2017). The Concept of the 'Master' in Art Education in Britain and Ireland, 1770 to the Present. Routledge. p. 17. ISBN 9781351545471. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  7. ^ "O Street creates unifying brands for Scottish galleries - Design Week". Design Week. 8 June 2011. from the original on 12 April 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  8. ^ "New look for the National Galleries of Scotland". www.nationalgalleries.org (Press release). 29 March 2023. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  9. ^ a b c Gifford, John; McWilliam, Colin; Walker, David; Wilson, Christopher (1991). Edinburgh. Yale University Press. pp. 282–3. ISBN 0300096720. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  10. ^ . www.nationalgalleries.org. National Galleries of Scotland. Archived from the original on 12 April 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  11. ^ "Opening day for gallery project". BBC News. 4 August 2004. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  12. ^ Ferguson, Brian. "Work begins on £22 million project for better access to Scottish National Gallery". The Scotsman. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  13. ^ "The Scottish National Gallery Project". National Galleries of Scotland. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  14. ^ "Scottish National Gallery refurbishment hit by 'unexpected defects'". The Herald. 7 February 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  15. ^ "Scottish National Gallery project pushed back to end of 2022". Scottish Construction Now. 7 February 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  16. ^ a b "Artworks". www.nationalgalleries.org. National Galleries of Scotland. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  17. ^ National Gallery of Scotland, James Drummond
  18. ^ John Emms, National Gallery of Scotland.

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scottish National Gallery.
  • homepage on NationalGalleries.org

April 10, 2024
scottish, national, gallery, national, formerly, national, gallery, scotland, located, mound, central, edinburgh, close, princes, street, building, designed, neoclassical, style, william, henry, playfair, first, opened, public, 1859, national, galleries, scotl. The National formerly the Scottish National Gallery is the national art gallery of Scotland It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh close to Princes Street The building was designed in a neoclassical style by William Henry Playfair and first opened to the public in 1859 2 National Galleries Scotland NationalThe National building and Royal Scottish Academy building viewed from the South 2005 Location within Edinburgh city centreFormer namesScottish National Gallery National Gallery of ScotlandEstablished1859 165 years ago 1859 LocationThe Mound EdinburghCoordinates55 57 3 N 3 11 44 W 55 95083 N 3 19556 W 55 95083 3 19556Visitors1 583 231 2019 1 Public transit accessPrinces StreetEdinburgh WaverleyWebsitewww wbr nationalgalleries wbr orgThe gallery houses Scotland s national collection of fine art spanning Scottish and international art from the beginning of the Renaissance up to the start of the 20th century The National is run by National Galleries Scotland a public body that also owns the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Because of its architectural similarity the National is frequently confused by visitors with the neighbouring Royal Scottish Academy Building RSA a separate institution which works closely with the National 3 Contents 1 History 2 Building 3 Research 4 Collection 4 1 Notable works 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksHistory edit nbsp Edinburgh Castle and National Gallery c 1865 The origins of Scotland s national collection lie with the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland founded in 1819 It began to acquire paintings and in 1828 the Royal Institution building opened on The Mound In 1826 the Scottish Academy was founded by a group of artists who dissatisfied with its policies seceded from the Royal Institution and in 1838 it became the Royal Scottish Academy RSA A key aim of the RSA was the founding of a national collection It began to build up a collection and from 1835 rented exhibition space within the Royal Institution building 2 In the 1840s plans were put in place for a new building to house the RSA 2 The noted Scottish architect William Henry Playfair was commissioned to prepare designs and on 30 August 1850 Prince Albert laid the foundation stone 4 The building was originally divided along the middle with the east half housing the exhibition galleries of the RSA and the western half containing the new National Gallery of Scotland 4 formed from the collection of the Royal Institution 2 In 1912 the RSA moved into the Royal Institution building which remains known as the Royal Scottish Academy Building When it re opened the gallery concentrated on building its permanent collection of Scottish and European art for the nation of Scotland In the early 21st century the National Galleries launched the Playfair Project a scheme to create a new basement entrance to the National Gallery in Princes Street Gardens and an underground connecting space called the Weston Link between the gallery and the renovated Royal Scottish Academy building The new underground space opened in 2004 5 In 2012 the gallery s umbrella organisation National Galleries of Scotland underwent a rebranding exercise and National Gallery of Scotland was renamed the Scottish National Gallery 6 7 In 2023 the organisation was rebranded once more and adopted the shorter name National Galleries Scotland Each of its galleries was also rebranded and the Scottish National Gallery is now billed as National Galleries Scotland National 8 Building editWilliam Playfair s building like its neighbour the Royal Scottish Academy was designed in the form of an Ancient Greek temple While Playfair designed the RSA in the Doric order the National Gallery building is in the Ionic order The main east and west elevations have plain pilastrading with the higher central transverse block having hexastyle Ionic porticoes Paired Ionic columns in antis are flanked by tetrastyle Ionic porticoes at north and south The design reflects the building s original dual purpose being divided longitudinally with the exhibition galleries of the RSA to the east and the National Gallery to the west 3 9 4 Playfair worked to a much more limited budget than the RSA project and this is reflected in his comparatively austere architectural style He may have drawn inspiration from an 1829 scheme for an arcade of shops by Archibald Elliot II son of Archibald Elliot Playfair s National Gallery was laid out in a cruciform plan he originally planned to build towers at the corners of the transverse central block but these were abandoned during the project When the RSA moved into the former Royal Institution building in 1912 the Office of Works Architect for Scotland William Thomas Oldrieve remodelled the NGS interior to house the National Gallery collection exclusively 9 In the 1970s when the gallery was under the direction of the Department of the Environment the internal accommodation was extended An upper floor was added at the south end in 1972 creating five new small galleries and in 1978 a new gallery was opened in the basement to house the Gallery s Scottish Collection 9 10 The new Princes Street Gardens entrance and underground space opened in 2004 was designed by John Miller and Partners Construction took five years and cost 32 million The area contains a lecture theatre education area shop restaurant an interactive gallery and a link to the RSA building 2 11 In January 2019 construction work began on a project to alter the lower level areas and to create extended exhibition space It is planned that the Princes Street Gardens entrance will become the main entrance of the gallery to facilitate access East Princes Street Gardens is being re landscaped with sloping paths and 52 trees have been felled to be replaced with 22 newly planted saplings 12 13 The redevelopment is delayed until at least late 2022 as a result of asbestos being found in part of the structure and due to the implications of the COVID 19 pandemic 14 15 Architectural features nbsp Twin porticoes at the main entrance with the original name inscribed on the frieze nbsp Playfair s ionic columns nbsp Interior of the ground floor main galleries nbsp The Princes Street Gardens entrance opened 2004 Research editThe research facilities at the Scottish 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 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 The Print Room or Research Library can be accessed by appointment Collection edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scottish National Gallery category At the heart of the National Gallery s collection is a group of paintings transferred from the Royal Scottish Academy This includes masterpieces by Jacopo Bassano Van Dyck and Giambattista Tiepolo The National Gallery did not receive its own purchase grant until 1903 In the Gallery s main ground floor rooms are displayed a number of major large scale canvases such as Benjamin West s Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag 1786 Rubens s The Feast of Herod 1633 or c 1637 38 and a pair of paintings by Titian Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto purchased jointly with the National Gallery London The Scottish National Gallery has also jointly acquired one of Canova s sculptures of The Three Graces with the Victoria and Albert Museum 16 The Scottish National Gallery has a notable collection of works by Scottish artists including several landscapes by Alexander Nasmyth and several works by Sir Henry Raeburn of particular note his portraits of Alexander Ranaldson Macdonell and Sir Walter Scott and his celebrated painting The Skating Minister There are also a number of works by artists of the Glasgow School such as James Guthrie The Gallery also holds a collection of works by English painters such as Constable s The Vale of Dedham and a sizeable collection of water colours by Turner which are traditionally displayed in January The Monarch of the Glen a painting considered to depict the grandeur of the wildlife and scenery of the Scottish Highlands is also held in the gallery the work of the English painter Sir Edwin Landseer 16 Notable works edit Key works of art displayed at the National Gallery include Gian Lorenzo Bernini Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo and Design for a Papal Monument Sandro Botticelli Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child Antonio Canova The Three Graces displayed on rotation with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London Paul Cezanne The Big Trees and Montagne Sainte Victoire Jean Simeon Chardin Vase of Flowers John Constable The Vale of Dedham SNG Gerard David Three Legends of St Nicholas Edgar Degas Portrait of Diego Martelli James Drummond The Porteous Mob and A Lady Descending from a Sedan Chair Study for the Painting The Porteous Mob 17 Anthony van Dyck The Lomellini Family Thomas Gainsborough Portrait of Mrs Mary Graham Paul Gauguin Vision after the Sermon Hugo van der Goes The Trinity Altarpiece on loan from the Royal Collection Vincent van Gogh Olive Trees Francisco de Goya El Medico El Greco Saint Jerome in Penitence Fabula and Christ Blessing The Saviour of the World Gavin Hamilton Dawkins and Wood Discovering the Ruins of Palmyra Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Mlle Albertine Hayard Edwin Landseer The Monarch of the Glen Lorenzo Lotto Madonna and Child with Saints Claude Monet Haystacks Joseph Noel Paton The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania Giambattista Pittoni St Jerome and Peter of Alcantara Nicolas Poussin The Seven Sacraments Sir Henry Raeburn The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch Allan Ramsay Margaret Lindsay Raphael The Bridgewater Madonna Rembrandt van Rijn A Woman in Bed and Self Portrait Sir Joshua Reynolds The Ladies Waldegrave Pieter Jansz Saenredam Grote Kerk Haarlem Georges Seurat La Luzerne St Denis John Singer Sargent Lady Agnew of Lochnaw Titian Venus Anadyomene Diana and Callisto Diana and Actaeon The Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and an Unidentified Saint and The Three Ages of Man Joseph Mallord William Turner Somer Hill and the Vaughan Bequest of 38 works Diego Velazquez Old Woman Frying Eggs Johannes Vermeer Christ in the House of Martha and Mary Antoine Watteau Fetes Venitiennes Notable artworks in the Scottish National Gallery collection nbsp Holy Family with a Palm Tree Raphael 1506 nbsp Diana and Callisto Titian 1559 nbsp Portrait of Mrs Mary Graham Thomas Gainsborough 1775 nbsp The Ladies Waldegrave Joshua Reynolds 1780 nbsp The Rev Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch Sir Henry Raeburn 1790s nbsp The Vale of Dedham John Constable 1828 nbsp The Monarch of the Glen Edwin Landseer 1851 nbsp Niagara Falls from the American Side Frederic Edwin Church 1867 nbsp Haystacks Claude Monet 1891 nbsp Vision apres le Sermon Paul Gauguin 1888 Other artists represented in the collection include David Allan Francis Bacon Federico Barocci William Blake Eugene Boudin David Young Cameron Gustave Courbet Aelbert Cuyp Eugene Delacroix Domenichino Albrecht Durer William Dyce Adam Elsheimer John Emms 18 Andrew Geddes Guercino James Guthrie Frans Hals Meindert Hobbema Hans Holbein the Younger Edward Atkinson Hornel Robert Scott Lauder Horatio McCulloch William York Macgregor William MacTaggart Lorenzo Monaco Berthe Morisot John Phillip Giovanni Battista Piranesi Camille Pissarro Robert Priseman David Roberts Peter Paul Rubens George Sanders William Strang Tintoretto Leonardo da Vinci Sir David Wilkie Francisco de ZurbaranSee also editNational Galleries of Scotland List of national galleriesReferences edit ALVA Association of Leading Visitor Attractions www alva org uk Retrieved 23 October 2020 a b c d e Scottish National Gallery History amp Architecture Archived from the original on 7 February 2014 Retrieved 27 January 2014 a b Campbell Donald 2003 Edinburgh A Cultural and Literary History Signal Books p 120 ISBN 9781902669731 Retrieved 12 April 2018 national gallery of scotland edinburgh greek temple a b c Historic Environment Scotland 1 THE MOUND NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOTLAND WITH RAILINGS Category A Listed Building LB27679 Retrieved 26 February 2019 Playfair Project National Galleries of Scotland Retrieved 3 April 2012 Potter MatthewC 2017 The Concept of the Master in Art Education in Britain and Ireland 1770 to the Present Routledge p 17 ISBN 9781351545471 Retrieved 12 April 2018 O Street creates unifying brands for Scottish galleries Design Week Design Week 8 June 2011 Archived from the original on 12 April 2018 Retrieved 12 April 2018 New look for the National Galleries of Scotland www nationalgalleries org Press release 29 March 2023 Retrieved 29 March 2023 a b c Gifford John McWilliam Colin Walker David Wilson Christopher 1991 Edinburgh Yale University Press pp 282 3 ISBN 0300096720 Retrieved 12 April 2018 Our history www nationalgalleries org National Galleries of Scotland Archived from the original on 12 April 2018 Retrieved 12 April 2018 Opening day for gallery project BBC News 4 August 2004 Retrieved 29 March 2023 Ferguson Brian Work begins on 22 million project for better access to Scottish National Gallery The Scotsman Retrieved 7 January 2019 The Scottish National Gallery Project National Galleries of Scotland Retrieved 7 January 2019 Scottish National Gallery refurbishment hit by unexpected defects The Herald 7 February 2020 Retrieved 29 August 2021 Scottish National Gallery project pushed back to end of 2022 Scottish Construction Now 7 February 2020 Retrieved 29 August 2021 a b Artworks www nationalgalleries org National Galleries of Scotland Retrieved 13 April 2018 National Gallery of Scotland James Drummond John Emms National Gallery of Scotland External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scottish National Gallery homepage on NationalGalleries org Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Scottish National Gallery amp oldid 1216727363 History, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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