Our latest stories
Uncovering the secrets underneath Orazio’s ‘Finding of Moses’
Ring's 'Road in the Village of Baldersbrønde (Winter Day)'
Picture of the month December 2024
Why do artists paint young women looking into mirrors?
Unexpected views
Katrina Palmer, National Gallery Artist in Residence 2024
Holbein's 'Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan'
Picture of the month November 2024
Liss's 'Judith in the Tent of Holofernes'
Claude's 'Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba'
Picture of the month October 2024
The Director's favourite paintings
Richard Wilson's 'The Valley of the Dee, with Chester in the Distance'
Picture of the month September 2024
Seeing Caravaggio in a new light
Henri Rousseau's 'Surprised!'
Picture of the month August 2024
How a Canaletto painting found refuge in Wales
Artemisia Gentileschi in the mirror
The Triumph of Art: Ed Hall in conversation
[Re]curated: Lucian Freud - The Artist’s Eye
Unexpected views
Bob and Roberta Smith on Turner's 'Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway'
Why did Rosa Bonheur hide herself in this painting?
Berthe Morisot's 'Summer's Day'
Picture of the month July 2024
Unexpected views
Rana Begum on Turner's, 'Ulysses deriding Polyphemus - Homer's Odyssey'
Canaletto's 'London: Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh'
Picture of the month June 2024
Unexpected views
Alexis Teplin on Paul Cezanne’s 'Hillside in Provence'
What makes 'The Wilton Diptych' so unique?
Why did Queen Charlotte not like this portrait of herself?
Unexpected views
Sharon Walters on Francisco de Zurbarán's 'Saint Margaret of Antioch'
Piero della Francesca's 'The Baptism of Christ'
Picture of the month May 2024
Chemistry of colour
Ultramarine
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Michelangelo's 'The Entombment'
Picture of the month April 2024
Unexpected views
Jananne Al-Ani on Egbert van der Poel's 'A View of Delft after the Explosion of 1654'
Is there engineering in art?
Alexandrine-Emilie Brongniart
Picture of the month March 2024
The Linbury Lecture 2023
Annabelle Selldorf
The myth and image of Narcissus
Picture of the month February 2024
Why is this picture painted in black and white?
Meindert Hobbema's 'The Avenue at Middelharnis'
Picture of the month January 2024
Artists on Artists
Volker Hermes and Peter Brathwaite
Behind the scenes in Conservation
A closer look at Pesellino
Fra Filippo Lippi's 'The Annunciation'
Picture of the month December 2023
Pauline Matthews' legacy gift
Memories of the Gallery and Manod
Bermejo's 'Saint Michael Triumphs over the Devil'
Picture of the month November 2023
Linked Lives: A Poet, An Abolitionist and An Aristocrat
How did we trace these portraits in London to a poet in New Orleans?
Contemporary artists at the National Gallery
Unexpected views
Eddie Otchere on Hendrick ter Brugghen's 'The Concert'
Frans Hals: Curators' highlights
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Reuniting 400-year-old marriage portraits
Rubens's 'Roman Triumph'
Picture of the month October 2023
How Frans Hals transformed portraiture
Behind the scenes in Conservation
The gory story of 'The Judgement of Zaleucus'
Ferdinand Hodler's 'Kien Valley with the Bluemlisalp Massif'
Picture of the month September 2023
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Solving the mystery of a Frans Hals portrait
Paula Rego's 'Crivelli's Garden'
Picture of the month August 2023
Behind the Scenes: Refurbishing Room 29
Jazz musician Arun Ghosh on Zurbarán's Saint Francis
Picture of the month July 2023
Unexpected views
Céline Condorelli on Pontormo's 'Joseph with Jacob in Egypt'
Sensory storytelling with Constable's 'Cornfield'
Saint Francis of Assisi: Highlights tour
Is Constable's 'Cornfield' a real or imagined landscape?
'For Philip II, King of Spain': A new poem by Maz Hedgehog
Picture of the month June 2023
Did you know?
Facts you might not know from the National Gallery’s history
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Cleaning Paolo Uccello's 'The Battle of San Romano'
A mindful look at the Ugly Duchess
Picture of the month May 2023
Literally raising 'The Raising of Lazarus'
Watch as art handlers move one of our largest paintings
Behind the scenes
Find out what happens behind closed doors in this series of films that look at how we care for and conserve our paintings.
Women artists in the collection
Trailblazers and rule-breakers; discover some of the female artists in the collection including Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun and Rosa Bonheur.
Van Gogh
Journey to the south of France and witness the landscapes that so inspired Vincent Van Gogh, take a sneak peak of the exhibition with the curators, and discover the secrets behind his palette.
Frans Hals
Discover how Frans Hals transformed portraiture, learn about different artists' perspectives on his works, and see what secrets our Conservation team revealed about some of his paintings.
One painting, many voices
From wondering if tigers go to the dentist to pondering why Mrs Andrews looks unamused, find out how one painting can mean very different things to different people.
See the bigger picture
Read and watch our highlight series below or browse our archive of features and films
Make and create
Get stuck in with online art tutorials you can follow at home.
After Impressionism
Explore a period of great upheaval, when artists broke with established tradition and laid the foundations for the art of the 20th and the 21st centuries.
5-minute meditation
Let go of thoughts of the past and worries for the future with a mindful look at one painting.
Latest films
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What's the story behind this violent act? A graphic scene of violence, told across the centuries. Art Historian and Guide Michael Ohajuru looks at the story of Judith and Holofernes, and the role Black maidservant Abra plays in the story. He explores...
Vincent van Gogh sits among the most famous and influential painters in all of Western art. Take a sneak peek at some of the highlights in the National Gallery exhibition, ‘Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers’, with curators Chris Riopelle and Cornelia Hombur...
Journey to the south of France and witness the landscapes that so inspired Vincent van Gogh and the painting techniques that have made him famous today. Travel through Arles and Saint-Rémy - from the banks of the Rhône to the hospital where he stayed...
There are many representations of the Queen of Sheba in art, whether in 15th-century manuscripts, Renaissance paintings or contemporary artworks, but what does the way she is presented tell us about attitudes towards Black women at the time?
What colour do you think of most when you think of Vincent van Gogh? Probably his glorious use of yellow - most famously in his series of 'Sunflowers' paintings. Dive in with Catherine Higgitt from the National Gallery's scientific department to disc...
Curator Mary McMahon talks to Conservation Fellow Maria Carolina Peña-Mariño about the challenge of restoring Richard Wilson's painting 'The Valley of the Dee, with Chester in the Distance' of about 1761.
Discover the cultural and historical significance of 'The Wilton Diptych', one of the National Gallery's most iconic treasures with stunning close-ups and unique insights from former Simon Sainsbury Curatorial Fellow, Charlotte Wytema.
Why is the tiger scared? Does a tiger go to the dentist? Is that a tail or a snake? And most importantly, what's the tiger's name? Watch as primary school children react to 2024's Take One Picture painting, Henri Rousseau's 'Surprised!'.
As part of our 'National Treasures' programme, the National Library of Wales welcomes back Canaletto’s masterpiece 'The Stonemason’s Yard', having taken refuge there over 80 years ago.
What does it mean for a woman to capture herself in the mirror? Artist Jesse Jones looks at Artemisia Gentileschi’s 'Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria' as a composite of three women: Gentileschi herself (1593 - 1654 or later), Saint Cath...
Rembrandt’s 'Self Portrait at the Age of 34' is on display at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.
Artist Rosa Bonheur wore trousers, didn't ride side saddle and lived with her female partner, Nathalie Micas, in 19th-century France. She also painted a self portrait into the middle of one of her most spectacular works, 'The Horse Fair'.
Take in the sunshine of Paris's Bois de Boulogne with Berthe Morisot's 'Summer's Day'. The Impressionist artist uses distinctive zig-zag brushstrokes and an extraordinary interplay of light and colour.
What do women today think of ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula’? And why did Caravaggio paint himself in such a violent scene? Author and poet Amy Key and singer songwriter Naomi Kimpenu join curator Dr Francesca Whitlum-Cooper to discuss all this and m...
Find out why National Gallery Director, Gabriele Finaldi, has chosen Piero della Francesca's 'Baptism of Christ' for his Picture of the Month, as we mark the beginning of the Gallery's Bicentenary year in May 2024.
Go behind the scenes at the National Gallery as our art handlers have the task of moving and rehanging Sebastiano's huge painting 'The Raising of Lazarus'. This picture was the first ever painting in our collection. Our Head of Art Handling, Patrick ...
The Sainsbury Wing galleries are closed until 2025 while we carry out our NG200 building work to mark our Bicentenary and transform your visitor welcome.
Britta New reveals surprising discoveries about 'The Ugly Duchess' and how the painting links Leonardo da Vinci to 'Alice in Wonderland'.
Who is the woman depicted in this painting by Sebastiano del Piombo? The two candidates for the subject, Judith and Salome, are both drawn from biblical stories. They share many attributes but their drastic actions have very different motives.
Discover this vast wall painting. Join Gallery Educator Fiona Alderton to look at a work you might not expect to find at the National Gallery: a huge painting, called 'Messengers', by the British artist Bridget Riley. The work, which was unveiled in ...
Snakes for arms; scaly, avian legs; and moth-like wings, find out why this late-Gothic demon was the stuff of nightmares in its day with Daniel Sobrino Ralston, CEEH Associate Curator for Spanish Paintings.
Curator Laura Llewellyn works with art handlers to arrange and hang a selection of 15th-century Italian paintings in Room 14.
This Christmas, we're excited to unveil Piero della Francesca’s ‘Nativity’ following its three-year restoration, and cast new light on some of the long-standing questions about the painting.
Come behind the scenes in conservation with us as restorer Paul Ackroyd removes the aged, discoloured varnish from Frans Hals’ ‘Portrait of a Middle-Aged Woman with Hands Folded’.
Daniel Sobrino Ralston, our CEEH Curatorial Fellow in Spanish Paintings, goes behind the frame of Murillo's 'Self Portrait' and asks what could be on Murillo's mind as he paints himself? https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/stories/10-minute-talks-muri...
Associate Curator Laura Llewellyn discusses 'Portrait of a Young Man' by Sandro Botticelli, and explores how he revolutionised portraits.
Paul Ackroyd, restorer, is cleaning 'The Red Boy', an iconic painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence. It was so popular it was the first-ever painting to feature on a British postage stamp.
Britta New and Nelly von Aderkas discuss the cleaning of a Renaissance altarpiece that was hidden in an Italian wood store for many years.
Emma Capron, Associate Curator of Renaissance Painting, explores what made Jan van Eyck such an extraordinary painter.
This content was filmed in 2019.
Find out what Larry Keith discovered when he removed 75 years’ worth of discoloured varnish from Rubens’s 'Het Steen': https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/behind-the-scenes/cleaning-rubens-het-steen
Kristina Mandy shows the steps involved in restoring a painting that is over 750-years-old.
A five-minute slow-looking meditation exercise to enjoy the details of Van Gogh's 'Wheatfield, with Cypresses'. The landscape includes elements typical of Provence, in the south of France, like a golden wheat field, tall evergreen cypresses, an olive...
We've really missed what is our largest room and one of the Gallery's major thoroughfares. It's been out of bounds to most of us and so we're excited about the big reveal.
Grandiose. Monumental. Chas and Dave? Find out what people had to say about Holbein's 'The Ambassadors'.
Create a tiger collage! Watch along as Bethan, one of our Gallery Educators, creates a jungle-themed work of art using just materials you can find at home. It's inspired by painting 'Surprised!' by Henri Rousseau.
A look at paintings that depict interiors and people at home, presented by Francesca Whitlum-Cooper, the Myojin-Nadar Associate Curator of Paintings, 1600–1800, at the National Gallery, London.
Who were the great women artists from history? Come on a tour of some of the paintings painted by women in the National Gallery collection, including Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Rosa Bonheur and Rachel Ruysch. We're guided by Gallery Educator, Fi...
Cleavers, poison and snakes, oh my! But what do they have to do with saints?