History

Explore the history of the National Gallery – from the origins of the collection to the present day

History of the collection

Building the nation's collection: from the first painting to today's world-class collection

The Turner Bequest

Read about the largest ever donation of works of art to the National Gallery

Directors

Directors of the Gallery past and present

The Bridgewater syndicate

How three aristocrats revolutionised art collecting in the UK

Collectors and benefactors

Explore the lives of key figures behind the collection

The building

Find out more about the building and its history

The Gallery in wartime

Bombs, buns and Beethoven – how the Gallery survived the war

Whereabouts of paintings

List of works with incomplete provenance from 1933–1945