London's best art galleries

The art lover is spoiled for choice when visiting London. There is so much wonderful art here that you could stay for a month (at least!) and not see it all. You also need to be aware that it is housed in a large number of art galleries throughout the city, and there are treasures to be found in many different places.

What counts as “best” depends on what you are looking for. The best gallery for modern British art is not going to be best for Italian “old masters”, for example. And biggest does not necessarily mean best.

So here is a quick guide to the familiar and non-so-familiar in terms of London art galleries. Some galleries have large permanent collections, whilst others display temporary exhibitions, and may be closed at times between exhibitions. Some galleries have both a permanent display and space for special exhibitions. Even the permanent displays will change from month to month as galleries rotate their stock to fill gaps when paintings are on loan, or to display items that would otherwise be kept in storage and thus out of public view. There are also a number of private galleries in which the art on display is offered for sale.

Firstly, you cannot ignore the “big four”:

The National Gallery

This is on the north side of Trafalgar Square, and is one of the World’s greatest collections of British and European art. There are usually at least two exhibitions on the go at any one time, although there is usually a charge for admission. Otherwise, admission is free.

The National Portrait Gallery

This is in St Martin’s Place, just round the corner from the National Gallery. There are more than 10,000 portraits in the main collection, but the NPG has an archive of more than 320,000. The vast majority of subjects are British people who have achieved fame or notoriety in various fields, so a walk through the NPG is a history lesson as well as an artistic experience.  Admission is free, except for special exhibitions.

Tate Britain

On Millbank, a short distance up-river from the Houses of Parliament. The home of British art since 1500, there are rooms devoted to, for example, William Blake, JMW Turner, John Constable, and the Pre-Raphaelites. Admission is free, except for special exhibitions.

Tate Modern

London’s newest “great gallery”, it is housed in the former Bankside power station on the south bank of the Thames opposite St Paul’s Cathedral. You can take a boat trip from Tate Britain, passing the London Eye on the way. The displays are of international modern and contemporary art, some of it highly controversial and challenging. There are rooms devoted to themes, such as pop art or “material gestures”, and others to individual artists, including Mark Rothko and Joseph Beuys. Admission is free, except for special exhibitions.

But don’t stop there! Here are some suggestions for galleries that are also “the best”, but might not be top of your agenda:

Victoria and Albert Museum

A museum? Not an art gallery? It’s both. If you took the museum galleries away from the V&A and left the art galleries behind, you would still have a major collection in its own right. The V&A is in South Kensington, close to the Natural History/Science Museum, and not far from Harrods. The collection includes 2,000 British and European paintings, plus many more drawings, pastels and a very unusual set of portrait miniatures. Some of the best-known works by Turner, Constable and Gainsborough will be found here, and not at the National or Tate Britain. Admission is free. Some exhibitions are free, and there is a charge for others.

Dulwich Picture Gallery

It is amazing how many people have never heard of this gallery, although it has been here since 1811 and predates the National Gallery. It started life as a collection looking for a home, as it was originally intended to be the basis of a Polish National Gallery. However, Poland’s loss was London’s gain, because it is a substantial collection of European old master paintings of the 17^th and 18^th centuries, including works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, Canaletto, Poussin, etc. It is a little off the beaten track, in South London, but well worth the journey. This is not a free gallery, but the admission price is reasonable. If there is a special exhibition (in the gallery that runs parallel to the main gallery) there will be an extra charge to see it.

Courtauld Gallery

This is housed in Somerset House, on the Strand overlooking the Thames. The collection includes works from as far back as the Renaissance, but its main claim to fame is its outstanding collection of impressionist and 20^th century art. Here you will find world-famous impressionist paintings by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Manet, Gauguin, Degas, Renoir and others, and 20^th century artists include Modigliani and Vanessa Bell. There is a small admission charge but this includes any temporary exhibitions.

The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace

British monarchs since the 17^th century have acquired or commissioned works of art of the very highest quality, so that the royal art collection is one of finest in private hands in the World, although the present Queen is mindful that she holds these in public trust and not as her personal property. This recently expanded gallery makes some of this collection accessible to the public in the form of a series of special exhibitions. As the exhibits move around the royal residences, and are often on loan to other galleries, you can never be sure what you will find at the “Buck House” gallery, but you could see works by Holbein, Leonardo, Canaletto, Rembrandt, and many other great artists. The gallery also displays sculpture, furniture, and other items from the royal collection. There is an admission charge, but it is not extortionate.

Wallace Collection

This is another superb gallery that deserves to be better known. It is in Hertford House, Manchester Square, which is not far from Selfridges on Oxford Street. The collection includes furniture, arms and armour, and objets d’art, as well as paintings, and its main strengths are in French 17^th and 18^th century works. What makes the gallery particularly unusual is that Hertford House was the town residence of the Marquesses of Hertford, from whom the collection was bequeathed to the nation in 1897. You are therefore seeing the art in its original setting. One of the best-known paintings is “The Laughing Cavalier” by Franz Hals. Admission is free.

And that’s still not all. Other fine collections and exhibition venues include the Guildhall Art Gallery, the Hayward Gallery, the Serpentine Gallery, the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts and the Saatchi Gallery. If it’s the visual arts you want, London’s the place to be!

© John Welford