by The opportunity to celebrate the 200th birthday of a treasured institution comes rarely. But today, in the heart of London, the champagne corks will be popping as the National Gallery, one of Britain’s great cultural treasures, tackles that glorious age.
It will mark a Big Weekend of celebration, kicking off with a spectacular light show projected onto the facade of the famous neo-classical building in Trafalgar Square from 9pm tonight. There will also be concerts — headlined by Jools Holland — workshops, talks and tours, as well as stories from the gallery’s history.
Gabriele Finaldi is the director of the National Gallery who sees in 200. “It is a great privilege to be part of the generation that crosses the threshold into the third century,” he says. “It’s not like any year; The bicentenary has encouraged people’s affection for the gallery and their generosity towards it.” He said, with a smile: “We would celebrate a birthday extending to 200 years if we could.”
Over the past two centuries, over 300 million people have come to see some of the most recognizable paintings in the history of art. Today they come from all over the world to experience the joy of work by masters from Leonardo to Turner, Raphael to Van Gogh, Constable to Botticelli.
It may have global appeal but its importance to London and its residents lies at its core. Finaldi, 59, says: “For Londoners, a lot of us were brought up with the National Gallery; we felt it was ours and it is now part of the fiber of our lives… It is woven into the history of this country and the history of London.”
And it’s not just the National Gallery, he says. “London brings people in; its cultural biosphere is unbalanced. Talking about collections only — not theater and music and other things — the wealth of world culture is here, in the care of professionals to share with the public for two centuries. It’s not the same in Paris, Rome or Madrid.”
Finaldi says the gallery is in good health but “the bicentennial gives us the opportunity to be an even better museum”. This includes the major building works along with the privately funded £85 million refurbishment of the Sainsbury Wing, which will open next spring to mark the end of the bicentenary.
Everyone has their favorite works. In a film released to coincide with the 200th birthday, Sir Michael Palin chose Turner’s work, Claudia Winkleman went for Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks and Princess Eugenie went with Correggio’s The Madonna of the Basket.
Today, Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers is the gallery’s biggest draw, and is the store’s best-selling merchandise, Finaldi says, a relatively recent development. When he started as curator at the National Gallery in 1992, JMW Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire and Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks were the biggest draws.
The gallery is also busy renovating its research and education center and building a network of partners across the country.
“We’ve inherited this from previous generations and it’s our job to make sure we provide the gallery in a better condition than we found it,” says Finaldi. “With new acquisitions, a new understanding of what the gallery is about … and if we’ve done that, we’ve done a lot.”
Although the museum is not back to the peak of more than six million visitors in the year before the pandemic, it rose 14 percent last year to more than three million. “In a way it’s good not to have those figures at the moment, because a third of our estate is closed. I mean, look at the gallery,” says Finaldi.
We’re wandering around on Thursday afternoon and it’s pouring out. Packed with tourists, locals, day trippers, families and kids on school trips.
The gallery traces its roots back to 1824 when the government, under pressure from art activists who wanted Britain to establish a national collection, bought works by the London businessman John Julius Angerstein.
Those first 38 paintings were displayed in Angerstein’s home at 100 Pall Mall, but as the collection grew, a new, larger location was needed and the gallery moved to its current location in 1838.
It was felt that all classes in society could enjoy it at the scene, and a commitment to free entry. Finaldi says: “Many other countries were doing it, and it was felt that a world-class art institution was needed to decorate the city as the capital of an Empire. But it was also a place of education, where British society could mingle peacefully.”
The gallery has expanded over the years with the addition of new wings and rooms — most recently the Sainsbury Wing, which opened in 1991. It also suffered bomb damage during the Blitz. The total floor area is now about six football pitches. The National Gallery’s remit is to cover European painting from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century (the most recent painting is from the twenties).
As the director of a collection of historical works, Finaldi understands, however, that he must ensure that it is a living museum and not a mausoleum.
“In a way, even though these works are rooted in a moment in history, we as a society consider them important, so they are still relevant. They continue to be talked about, researched and copied and inspire contemporary artists.” It is clear that the interest is not waning yet, not only from the crowd but the great summer party he is throwing: he attracted Maya Jama, Grayson Perry and Bella Freud last year, although this year he is on the ice, and a celebration doing it on a birthday.
When the gallery fully reopens it will reorganize its collection, just as Tate Britain did in 2023, giving it the chance to tell different stories and highlight different painters. Finaldi says more scholarship is underway on the lack of diversity in the collection to rethink the stories the gallery tells, particularly around underrepresented groups.
Another part of the director’s job in 2024 is to protect the collection, after protesters attacked works including The Hay Wain, Sunflowers and the Rokeby Venus. Keeping them safe is a huge challenge, he says. “It’s always surprising when you hear that a painting has been attacked,” Finaldi told the BBC recently. “I am angry at the protesters because they are damaging something that is precious to all of us.”
Another challenge is education and the threat of a reduction in school trips. He hopes that culture will be more embedded in the school’s curriculum. “Mathematics and sciences and literacy are vital, but to be whole people we need to nurture history, beauty and music. Museums are places where all this can happen.
“It’s not just about the history of art, it’s about understanding how society functioned, and how people in history dealt with things that we all deal with now – whether it’s death or love, family or religion. Most things are reflected in our work, and it’s up to us to find ways to bring them all to life.”
And even classical artists go in and out of fashion. Caravaggio is now a big draw but that has only changed in the last 70 years, and of course there is Van Gogh, who never sold a work in his life. “Over the past 30 years, Van Gogh has become a bulldozer who controls everything, and Sunflowers has become a talismanic painting for us. He wanted to show something joyful, uplifting and friendly. It continues that for a hundred years and a bit.”
There are about 2,400 paintings in the National Gallery’s collection, and when the full gallery reopens next spring, it will be able to display about 1,000 of them. “It’s a small collection — I worked in the Prado, which has 8,000, the Louvre has that kind of number, and the Tate has more than us. You won’t be going over more than half of the collection on display. On the one hand we are a very small collection, but a huge part of our collection is on display.”
Finaldi walks the gallery halls every day, which he learned from former National Galley and British Museum director Neil MacGregor.
“He said that’s the best way to be in touch with what’s going on in the gallery, to understand the way the public is responding to the collection. To let the room attendants tell you things if necessary and revive your spirits at the end of the day. You realize this is what it’s all about.”
It’s clear that he still enjoys everything. “The National Gallery is like a beautiful treasure chest, which you open up and it becomes much bigger than you first thought. Every picture is a discovery if you give it time.”
nationalgallery.org.uk
