About us

Collection overview

We're home to over 2,300 works, including many famous paintings, such as van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus, Turner’s Fighting Temeraire and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.

All major traditions of Western European painting are presented, from the artists of late medieval and Renaissance Italy, to the French Impressionists.

See some of our highlight paintings

13th to 15th century

Duccio, Uccello, van Eyck, Lippi, Mantegna, Botticelli, Dürer, Memling, Bellini

Most surviving late medieval pictures are religious. They were made for altars in churches or for private devotion. Many have beautifully decorated gold-leaf backgrounds.

In the 15th century, portraits and scenes from ancient history and mythology increased in importance. Realism changed the way sacred subjects were painted. Technical advances, such as oil paint, meant that artists could paint facial expression and surface textures with greater subtlety.

16th century

Leonardo, Cranach, Michelangelo, Raphael, Holbein, Bruegel, Bronzino, Titian, Veronese

The leading artists of this period achieved a fame that has never diminished. Especially in Italy, Renaissance painters sought to rival and surpass the artists of ancient Greece and Rome.

Portraitists were highly prized and pictures of ancient history and mythology became almost as important as Christian subjects. Paintings were appreciated for their artistry as much as for their subject matter, and often placed in specially created galleries.

17th century

Caravaggio, Rubens, Poussin, Van Dyck, Velázquez, Claude, Rembrandt, Cuyp, Vermeer

While some artists of this period looked to the art of the past for inspiration, they always imparted their own style, from the flamboyant to the austere. Religious subjects were treated in novel ways to engage the emotions of the viewer.

In the Netherlands, specialist painters of still lifes, landscapes and scenes of everyday life – from elegant social gatherings to lively scenes in taverns – enjoyed great popularity.

18th to early 20th century

Canaletto, Goya, Turner, Constable, Ingres, Degas, Cézanne, Monet, Van Gogh

Although the production of grand paintings for churches and palaces continued, it became more common for artists to paint smaller works that were exhibited and sold through art dealers and public exhibitions.

In the 19th century, art movements (loose associations of artists working in a similar style), such as the Impressionists emerged, as did the idea of the independent artist who rebelled against the official art establishment.