The National Gallery

On Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery brings together more than 2,300 Western European paintings, from the 13th century to the early 20th century. The permanent collection is free to enter, so you can drop in for one painting or spend hours moving through the galleries. Look for Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks, and Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire. The Sainsbury Wing holds early Renaissance works, and the collection is arranged by period to help you follow changes in painting over time.

A collection arranged through time

The National Gallery is at Trafalgar Square and holds more than 2,300 paintings from Western Europe. The collection spans the 13th century to the early 20th century, with works representing major periods and schools of painting. Galleries are arranged chronologically, so you can follow how styles changed as you move through the collection.

The Sainsbury Wing contains some of the earliest works, including Italian paintings by artists such as Giotto and Piero della Francesca. Its rooms include religious paintings made for private devotion. In other parts of the gallery, you can find Italian Renaissance works by Titian and Raphael, as well as Dutch, Flemish, Italian and Spanish paintings from the 17th century.

Paintings to look for

The collection includes works by Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Monet and Van Gogh. Among the best-known paintings are Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Leonardo’s The Virgin of the Rocks. Botticelli’s Venus and Mars and Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire are other notable works to seek out.

British painters are represented too. Look for paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable and J. M. W. Turner. If you are short on time, decide which artists or periods matter most to you before setting off through the rooms. You can also use the gallery’s online selection of 30 paintings to help plan a focused visit.