London National Gallery

The London National Gallery is London's internationally reknowed art gallery. located on the north side of Trafalgar Square. The London National Gallery houses Western European paintings from 1250 to 1900 from the national art collection of Great Britain.

The collection of paintings actually belongs to the British public, and entry to the London National Gallery main collection is free as many paintings have been donated in the past on the proviso that there is no charge for entry, although there are charges for entry to special exhibitions.

Despite having been founded without an existing royal collection on which to build, and housed in buildings often deemed inadequate for their purpose, the London National Gallery has grown to be a collection of international renown since its foundation in 1824.

It was shaped mainly by its early directors, including Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which comprise two thirds of the collection.

The London National Gallery collection while small in comparison with other national collections such as the Louvre, has a broad scope and paintings of exceptionally high quality.

The London National Gallery collection is also said to provide a well-balanced overview of Western art history up to the 20th century; every major development in painting from the Early Renaissance to the Post-impressionists is represented in its holdings, often by masterpieces.

With the release of Dan Brown's best-selling novel, 'The Da Vinci Code' starring the film star Tom Hanks playing Professor Robert Langdon, we see Hanks following a series of clues across London, Scotland Paris in a quest to discover the location of the Holy Grail.

The London National Gallery will be expecting even higher visitor numbers as book fans flock to the National Gallery to see Leonardo's 'The Virgin of the Rocks' - the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in a UK public collection, and one of a handful in the world.

This picture plays a vital role in 'The Da Vinci Code', with Robert Langdon discovering a key hidden behind the Louvre's version of the work. But all fiction aside, the London National Gallery does in fact have its very own 'Da Vinci Code!'

The National Gallery is the only place in the UK you can see close-up a painting that actually helped inspire a blockbuster.

Come and visit the gallery and discover the Leonardo da Vinci secrets that Dan Brown didn't write about...

For art lovers information The London National Gallery currently houses in excess of 2300 pictures.

Further information can be found on the London National Gallery official website.

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