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London's
Guildhall Art Gallery
The art gallery housing the collection of the Corporation of London, includes works by Constable and the pre-Raphaelites Millais and Rossetti. |
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The Guildhall Art GalleryThe Corporation of London has been collecting art since the 17th century, when it commissioned portraits of judges given the task of assessing property damage and awarding compensation after the Great Fire of 1666.Its collection now numbers over 4,000 works of art ranging from portraits of kings and queens to depictions of important naval battles, from period views of historic London to the work of contemporary artists. Since the Second World War, the Corporation’s collection has concentrated on London subjects.
Well, the mothballs are gone. A new gallery has been opened on the site of the old one in Guildhall Yard. The gallery, designed by Richard Gilbert Scott, was opened by Queen Elizabeth in November, 1999. The new gallery, built at a cost of over 70 million GBP, is especially strong in its selection of Victorian works by the pre-Raphaelites such as Millais and Rossetti, as well as by landscape genius John Constable.
Millais’s My First Sermon and My Second Sermon and Landseer’s The First Leap, as well as a large landscape by John Constable, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows feature prominently, as does Britain's largest independent oil painting, John Singleton Copley's "The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782", which has not been on public display since 1941. Because the immense size of the Corporation's collection prohibits the display of the all its works at one time, the gallery will include rotating exhibits of 250 pieces. The gallery, which also has English portraits and London subjects from the 17th century to today, is open from 10:00 to 17:00 Mondays to Saturdays, noon to 16:00 on Sundays. Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Phone 0207 7332 3700
Getting There
Car. Due to parking congestion, the use of public transport is recommended Contact |
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Bank, St Paul’s, Mansion House (Bow Lane exit), and Moorgate. 
