National Gallery

Can you guess the ? 🤔

In this portrait, the sitter is shown wearing a great expanse of sumptuous red fabric, reflecting his status and position in society. You can find the portrait on display in Room 31.

Find out the answer on our website: https://bit.ly/42irc0X

Last chance to see 📣

Today is your last chance to see our five-star exhibition 'The Last Caravaggio'. Travel back to May 1610. Caravaggio is in Naples working on the last picture he'd ever paint. Two months later, he died in mysterious circumstances. But it was during his final tumultuous years that Caravaggio made some of his most striking works.

See Caravaggio's last-known work, 'The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula', on display in London for the first time in 20 years, alongside our own late Caravaggio, 'Salome with the Head of John the Baptist'.

Find out more here: https://bit.ly/3LM88BS

Seen the exhibition already? Let us know what you thought in the comments below!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - The Guardian, Time Out

This week is your last chance to catch our free exhibition, 'The Last Caravaggio'. Few paintings are better placed to tell the story of Caravaggio’s tumultuous final years than his last-known work, 'The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula', on display in London for the first time in 20 years.

See the painting alongside our own late Caravaggio, 'Salome with the Head of John the Baptist', and an extraordinary 17th-century document confirming the artist's authorship.

Book your free ticket, closes on 21 July: https://bit.ly/3LM88BS

The Nine Day Queen 🤍

Paul Delaroche, one of the most popular French painters of the early 19th century, was born in 1797. His monumental painting 'The Ex*****on of Lady Jane Grey' depicts the final moments of Britain's shortest reigning monarch, Lady Jane Grey, who was executed at only sixteen years of age.

Delaroche’s choice of British subject matter reflects the French fascination with English culture in the 1820s and 1830s. Contemporary French viewers would have been alert to the parallels between Tudor history and relatively recent events in France after the Revolution of 1789, most obviously, the similar fates of Lady Jane Grey and the French queen Marie-Antoinette, who had faced the guillotine in 1793. Delaroche turns an event from British history into a compelling visual spectacle that also served as a commentary on France’s recent and bloody past: https://bit.ly/3mDhBzo

See the first UK exhibition of Mexico’s much-loved artist, José María Velasco 📣

This exhibition, the first-ever dedicated to a Latin American artist at the Gallery, marks the 200th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mexico and the UK, celebrating Velasco’s place among the great 19th-century landscape painters.

As a botanist, geologist and artist, explore how Velasco documented the effects of 19th-century industrialisation, and see how the rush of modernity made its mark on the natural world.

Sign up to our emails and be the first to hear when tickets are released: https://bit.ly/3WrjwJo

Happy birthday to Rembrandt, born in 1606 🎉

This is one of dozens of self portraits by Rembrandt. We see the artist in confident pose – self-assured, dressed in expensive-looking fur and velvet, his hat laced with jewels. But, though he is a Dutchman living in the 1640s, Rembrandt is wearing the clothes of a gentleman of the 1520s and his pose is based on paintings by Dürer, Titian and Raphael from a similar date. So, as the subject of the painting, Rembrandt is portraying himself as a Renaissance gentleman, and as the artist he is both paying homage to and directly comparing himself with the most famous artists of that time.

As part of the programme of events to celebrate our Bicentenary, 12 of the nation’s most iconic and well-loved paintings from the collection are being lent to 12 venues across the UK. You can now see Rembrandt's 'Self Portrait at the Age of 34' at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, alongside self portraits by young people who have considered how they would like to be seen by their peers, when, like Rembrandt, they reach the age of 34. Find out more here: https://bit.ly/3xWEAhe

Horsing around the Gallery 🐴

This week marks the anniversary of the death of George Stubbs in 1806. His monumental painting 'Whistlejacket' is one of the most important British paintings of the 18th century and widely acknowledged to be his masterpiece.

Unusually, when depicting this prize winning racehorse, Stubbs chose to exclude any reference to a rider, riding equipment or location, painting the magnificent rearing horse against a neutral background of pale gold. Despite suggestions that a rider was originally planned, Whistlejacket was always meant to be unmounted. Free from human control, the riderless horse is the embodiment of unrestrained natural energy, a free spirit that prefigures Romanticism’s celebration of nature: https://bit.ly/2XHs1SZ

✨ One of the most famous and intriguing paintings in the world ✨

Jan van Eyck died in 1441. His double portrait, 'The Arnolfini Portrait', is one of the most popular paintings in our collection. The couple are thought to be Giovanni di Nicolao di Arnolfini, an Italian merchant working in Bruges, and his wife, whose name is unknown.

Although it looks as if Jan van Eyck painted a real room exactly as he saw it, every object has been carefully chosen to proclaim the couple’s wealth and social status. From the ornately carved chair and bench to the splendid brass chandelier hangs from the ceiling, we are looking into a reception room in the comfortable, modern mansion of a wealthy merchant. Jan van Eyck added his flamboyant signature to the centre of the composition, reading, ‘Johannes de Eyck fuit hic. 1434’ (‘Jan van Eyck was here. 1434’).

Find out more here: https://bit.ly/2XCHIuL

Happy birthday to David Hockney, born in 1937!

Ahead of our exhibition, 'Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look', that will pair two of his works with Piero della Francesca's ‘The Baptism of Christ’, Hockney talks about what makes the work so special.

‘It's stuck with me all my life’: David Hockney on Piero della Francesca’s Baptism of Christ Ahead of an exhibition at the National Gallery in London that will pair two of his works with the Renaissance masterpiece, Hockney talks about what makes the work so special

The greatest tragic actress of her time 🎭

This week marks the 269th birthday of the great 18th century actress, Sarah Siddons. Gainsborough painted her in the winter of 1784, during her third London season. While most of Siddons’s earlier portraits depict her in character, here Gainsborough chose to depict her off-stage and wearing fashionable contemporary dress.

Siddons wears a black beaver hat trimmed with ribbon and ostrich feathers, like those worn by other women Gainsborough portrayed around 1785, such as Elizabeth Hallett. Her blue striped gown, tied at the waist with a blue sash, is known as a ’wrapping-gown‘ and would have been comparatively easy for a busy actress to slip on and off. Her yellow mantle is edged with fox fur, and she holds a fox fur m**f.

At the time Gainsborough painted her, she was playing her greatest role – Lady Macbeth. Something of the power and passion of that part can be felt in the portrait, considered by some as the artist’s masterpiece: https://bit.ly/38AIbiF

Can you guess the ? 🤔

This family portrait depicts its sitters dressed as characters from Greek and Roman mythology. The artist has used an expensive, high-quality ultramarine blue pigment to demonstrate the family's wealth and power.

Find out the answer here: https://bit.ly/3tYRJ4x

Why does this portrait have a thumb? 🤔

This week marks the anniversary of Anthony van Dyck's knighthood in 1632. A celebrated portraitist of the 17th century, Van Dyck's patrons were among some of the wealthiest and most influential people in Europe.

This portrait of Cornelis van der Geest, however, was painted in the artist's early career, when he was only twenty one years of age. A prosperous and influential Antwerp spice merchant, van der Geest was one of the most prominent collectors of paintings of his day. He was so revered that Van Dyck’s famous teacher Rubens described him as ‘the best of men and my oldest friend, who, since my youth, has been my never-failing patron, whose whole life showed a love and admiration of painting’.

Van Dyck had depicted van der Geest in a traditional format: a close up of the sitter’s face framed by a white ruff. Probably less than 15 years after it was made, new pieces of oak were added to the sides and bottom, and the painting was extended into a bust-length portrait which also showed his left arm and hand. This extension was almost certainly not done by Van Dyck: https://bit.ly/4br6hfR

Monet married Camille 💘

This week marks the wedding anniversary of leading Impressionist landscape painter Monet and his model and muse, Camille Doncieux. They married on 28 June 1870. Throughout their marriage Camille posed for a number of Monet's paintings, including 'The Beach at Trouville'.

Monet’s earlier paintings of the Normandy coast had emphasised it as a working seascape, depicting fishermen who had to contend with a cold climate, choppy seas and stormy skies. But in this painting, made in the summer of 1870, it is depicted as a holiday destination, with wide sandy beaches, bracing air and impressive seaside architecture. Grains of sand embedded in the paint reveal that the canvas was painted at least partly on the spot: https://bit.ly/2x9duk6

Can you guess the ? 🐯

This week marks the birthday of the Flemish painter and diplomat who created this masterpiece for King Charles I of England. He was born in 1577. The most famous artist in the world at the time, he was also a skilled negotiator and was acting on behalf of Philip IV of Spain.

Find out the answer and to learn more about the fascinating history behind this painting: https://bit.ly/2B8k1Rv

A portrait fit for a king 👑

Henry VIII, Former King of England, was born in 1491. This elegant young woman is Christina of Denmark, the youngest daughter of King Christian of Denmark. In 1538, King Henry VIII was looking for a fourth wife, after the death of Jane Seymour the previous year. As Henry’s official court artist, Holbein was sent to Brussels to capture Christina’s likeness.

The full-length format reflects the preferences of a previous monarch, Henry VI. In 1446 he specified that portraits of potential brides should be in this format, to show both their ‘countenance and their stature’. Christina is depicted here in sombre mourning dress in honour of her husband, the Duke of Milan, who had died in 1535. She wears a black fur-lined satin gown over a black dress, and a black cap covers her hair.

King Henry VIII was apparently so pleased with the portrait that he was reported to be ‘in better humour than he ever was, making musicians play on their instruments all day long’. Although their marriage negotiations failed, Henry kept Christina’s portrait until his death in 1547: https://bit.ly/2LGcfRU

✨ A once-in-a-century opportunity ✨

The countdown is officially on until we open our blockbuster exhibition ‘Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers’, bringing together some of Van Gogh's most spectacular paintings and drawings for the first time in centuries.

Opening on 14 September, this exhibition will feature our 'Sunflowers' painting alongside another of the seven that he painted while in Arles, usually on display at Philadelphia Museum of Art. This will be the first time that these sunflower paintings have been exhibited together since appearing in Van Gogh’s studio in 1889.

Van Gogh sketched out a plan for two of the sunflowers to be displayed as a triptych with a version of 'La Berceuse (Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle)' (now in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ) in a letter to his brother Theo, offering the unique opportunity to see three paintings as Van Gogh dreamt they be displayed.

Learn more and sign up to be the first to hear when tickets go on sale: https://bit.ly/3sQUUxc

Can you guess the ? 🤔

This we're taking a closer look at a portrait of a Dutch diplomatic figure, painted by a Frenchman. The sitter and the artist shared the same political ideals of the period, and the bond between the two men is evident in the relaxed intimacy of this portrait.

Find out the answer here: https://bit.ly/4evBK39