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Daily 10am-6pm (Wed till 9pm); free; www.nationalgallery.org.uk; Tube: Leicester Square or Charing Cross. Unlike the Louvre or the Hermitage, the National Gallery , on the north side of Trafalgar Square, is not based on a royal collection, but was begun in 1824 when the government reluctantly agreed to purchase 38 paintings belonging to a Russian emigre banker, John Julius Angerstein. The gallery's canny acquisition policy has resulted in a collection of more than 2200 paintings, but the collection's virtue is not so much its size, but the range, depth and sheer quality of its contents. To view the collection chronologically, begin with the Sainsbury Wing , the softly-softly, postmodern 1980s adjunct which playfully imitates elements of the original gallery's Neoclassicism. However, with more than a thousand paintings on permanent display in the main galleries, you'll need real stamina to see everything in one day, so if time is tight your best bet is to home in on your areas of special interest, having picked up a gallery plan at one of the information desks. A welcome innovation is the Gallery Guide Soundtrack , with a brief audio commentary on a large selection of the paintings on display. The Soundtrack is available free of charge, though you're asked for a "voluntary contribution". Another possibility is to join up with one of the gallery's free guided tours (daily 11.30am & 2.30pm, plus Wed 6.30pm), which set off from the Sainsbury Wing foyer. Among the National's Italian masterpieces are Leonardo's melancholic Virgin of the Rocks, Uccello's Battle of San Romano, Botticelli's Venus and Mars (inspired by a Dante sonnet) and Piero della Francesca's beautifully composed Baptism of Christ, one of his earliest works. The fine collection of Venetian works includes Titian's colourful early masterpiece Bacchus and Ariadne, his very late, much gloomier Death of Acteon, and Veronese's lustrous Family of Darius before Alexander. Elsewhere, Bronzino's erotic Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, and Raphael's trenchant Pope Julius II keep company with Michelangelo's unfinished Entombment. Later Italian works to look out for include a couple by Caravaggio, a few splendid examples of Tiepolo's airy draughtsmanship and glittering vistas of Venice by Canaletto and Guardi. From Spain there are dazzling pieces by El Greco, Goya, Murillo and Velazquez, among them the provocative Rokeby Venus. From the Low Countries , standouts include van Eyck's Arnolfini Marriage, Memlinc's perfectly poised Donne Triptych, and a couple of typically serene Vermeers. There are numerous genre paintings, such as Frans Hals' Family Group in a Landscape, and some superlative landscapes, most notably Hobbema's Avenue, Middleharnis. An array of Rembrandt paintings that features some of his most searching portraits - two of them self-portraits - is followed by abundant examples of Rubens' expansive, fleshy canvas Holbein's masterful Ambassadors and several of van Dyck's portraits were painted for the English court, and there's home-grown British art, too, represented by important works such as Hogarth's satirical Marriage a la Mode, Gainsborough's translucent Morning Walk, Constable's ever popular Hay Wain, and Turner's Fighting Temeraire. Highlights of the French contingent include superb works by Poussin, Claude, Fragonard, Boucher and Watteau, and the only two paintings in the country by David. Finally, there's a particularly strong showing of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists in rooms 43-46 of the East Wing. Among the most famous works are Manet's unfinished Execution of Maximilian, Renoir's Umbrellas, Monet's Thames below Westminster, Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Seurat's pointillist Bathers at Asnieres, a Rousseau junglescape, Cezanne's proto-Cubist Bathers and Picasso's Blue Period Child with a Dove.
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