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Our latest films and features

Our latest stories

Bartolomeo’s 'The Virgin and Child with Six Angels and Two Cherubim'

Picture of the month December 2025

This regal picture of the Virgin Mary would have looked out of place on an altar. So why did Francesco d’Antonio di Bartolomeo paint her like this?

Article

The only painting of New York in the National Gallery

George Bellows’s ‘Men of the Docks’ makes hard work into high art. Join art historian Oliver O'Donnell on a deeper dive into this painting.

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How is egg tempera paint made?

Our new series for children answers some of art's most intriguing questions. Did you know artists used to make paint with eggs?

Floris van Dijck’s 'A Banquet Still Life'

Picture of the month November 2025

To mark Legacy Awareness Month, meet the teacher who changed our collection forever

Video

Why is this painting of a felt hat nicknamed 'The Straw Hat'?

Bart Cornelis, our Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings explains why Rubens's portrait of Susanna Lunden has the word straw and not felt in its title

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Women at the National Gallery – Victorian Housemaids

For the Gallery's first 89 years, women were only employed in one role at the National Gallery: Housemaids.

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François-Hubert Drouais’ 'Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame'

Picture of the month October 2025

Amber Butchart asks, what can a dress tell us about politics 300 years ago?

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Women at the National Gallery – new jobs for women

The creation of a whole new department in 1915, led to new opportunities for women working at the National Gallery.

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Why is Monet's simple scene important to modern landscape painting?

Associate Curator Chiara Di Stefano explains why Monet's simple picture of a branch of the River Seine is important

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Women at the National Gallery – Lena Laurie

The story of Lena Laurie shows that career advancement was limited for women at the Gallery in the twentieth century.

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Which famous faces are hidden in these mosaics?

Annabel Bai-Jackson takes a closer look at the history behind the Anrep mosaics and the vibrant stories they tell

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A new way to experience 700 years of art

Our Director Sir Gabriele Finaldi and colleagues take us behind the scenes

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How does Rembrandt capture a king’s downfall?

Art historian Matthew Morgan explains Rembrandt’s masterful storytelling

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[re]curated: Richard Hamilton - The Artist’s Eye

Join Daniel F. Herrmann, Ardalan Curator for Modern and Contemporary Projects at the National Gallery and experts as they retell the story behind the exhibition and its paintings.

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Jean-Siméon Chardin's 'The Young Schoolmistress'

Picture of the month September 2025

As many head back to the classroom this month, delve into what a school lesson might have looked like in 18th-century France

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian’

Are the paint dribbles and cracks meant to be there?

See the Pollaiuolo brothers’ painting in our conservation studio and hear from conservators about their work on this Florentine, 450-year-old oil painting.

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Savery's 'Orpheus'

Picture of the month August 2025

Be transported to this unearthly scene with our 5-minute meditation

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10 reasons to visit 'Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller's Neo-Impressionists'

Lose yourself in an unmissable display of harmonious colour and groundbreaking technique

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How did new pigment technologies drive the Impressionist movement?

Art historian Evie Hatch looks at the innovative colour techniques used in Monet’s painting

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Juan de Zurbarán's 'Still Life with Lemons in a Wicker Basket'

Picture of the month July 2025

Explore this vivid still life and the talented young artist who painted it

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How did this painting save its artist’s life?

Project Curator Maria Alambritis deciphers this intriguing painting by Parmigianino

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What is gold and what makes it so appealing to artists? Specialist Scientist and Organic Analyst Nelly von Aderkas and Frame Conservator Isabella Kocum tell us about the sparkly world of gold looking at Duccio's 'The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea'

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Caravaggio’s ‘Boy bitten by a Lizard’

Picture of the month June 2025

Through a real-life recreation of Caravaggio’s ‘Boy bitten by a Lizard’, writer and performer Holly James Johnston explores some of the different interpretations this intriguing painting has inspired

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret

Talented and highly original - but who painted it?

Visit our Conservation studio and find out about this fascinating and mysterious altarpiece and what its conservation did (or did not) reveal

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Gainsborough's 'The Painter's Daughters with a Cat'

Picture of the Month May 2025

Discover how Thomas Gainsborough honed his craft through this portrait of his beloved daughters

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14th-century Siena: The art that shaped the future

Why did the city and its artists bring about such change in painting form and style?

Filmed on location in Siena and in the Gallery, curators, local experts and artists introduce us to the artists and their exquisite works

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Why do the colours of Jan Toorop's 'High Tide' remind us so much of Van Gogh?

Curatorial Fellow Sterre Overmars finds out why this painting is so reminiscent of works by Vincent van Gogh

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Savoldo's 'Mary Magdalene'

Picture of the month April 2025

Look beyond the dazzling silver shawl to discover the identity of this enigmatic woman

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Restoring Paolo Ucello's 'Battle of San Romano'

Why should we not take Uccello's 'Battle of San Romano' at face value?

Join Conservator Paul Ackroyd and Curator Imogen Tedbury as they chat over the question.

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The Triumph of Art: Jeremy Deller and Mary Beard in conversation

Watch artist Jeremy Deller and classicist Mary Beard discuss the act of commemoration

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Unexpected views

Jesse Jones on Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo's 'Mary Magdalene'

Jesse Jones discusses Savoldo's enigmatic painting in the light of her own expanded cinema practice

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Delaroche's 'The Execution of Lady Jane Grey'

Picture of the month March 2025

What links a female sculptor to this popular scene from British history?

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Why did Cezanne change his mind when painting ‘Bathers’?

Seeing ‘Bathers’ without its frame, raises both insights and questions about this large scale work from the end of Cezanne’s career.

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Monet's 'Bathers at La Grenouillère'

Picture of the month February 2025

What do schoolchildren think of Monet’s ‘Bathers at La Grenouillère’, and what do they want to know?

Video

Unexpected views

Ed Fornieles on Titian's 'Bacchus and Ariadne’

The interdisciplinary artist talks about how and why Titian's painting has meaning for him today.

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Fiona Douglas-Home: The first Photographic Archivist at the National Gallery

From listening to Myra Hess during the Second World War to working in the Photographic Department and marrying a colleague, she has woven the Gallery into the fabric of her life.

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Behind the scenes in Conservation: Nicolas Poussin: The painter's painter

Why is this such an important painting in Nicolas Poussin's career?

Visit our Conservation studio and find out about the painting and what its conservation revealed.

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Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 'The Adoration of the Kings'

Picture of the month January 2025

Delve into this sacred moment, filled with curious characters

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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.

Go behind the scenes in Conservation.

Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller's Neo-Impressionists

Peek inside our 'Radical Harmony' exhibition, take a deep dive into Neo-Impressionism, and try your hand at painting in dots of colour.

Watch our Neo-Impressionism film series

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.

Learn more about women in the collection.

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.

Discover one painting, many voices.