Dulwich Picture Gallery

About Dulwich Picture Gallery

Art gallery in Dulwich, South London, United Kingdom

Dulwich Picture Gallery is the oldest public art gallery in England, set in the leafy suburb of Dulwich in south London. Opened to the public in 1817 to a design by the Regency architect Sir John Soane, it became a landmark in museum architecture through its innovative use of natural light from roof lanterns, and together with its mausoleum it is listed Grade II*. Originally part of the College of God's Gift, the charitable foundation established by the actor and businessman Edward Alleyn in the early 17th century, it became an independent charitable trust in 1994. The collection has a curious history: it was assembled in the 1790s for the King of Poland by the dealers Noël Desenfans and Francis Bourgeois, but the partition of Poland and its disappearance as an independent state left it without a buyer, so Bourgeois bequeathed it to the college to be shown in "the clean air of Dulwich", and the two founders are buried in a mausoleum within the building. Today it ranks among Britain's finest holdings of Old Master paintings, especially strong in French, Italian and Spanish Baroque art and in British portraiture from the Tudor era to the 19th century, with works by Poussin, Claude, Rubens, Murillo, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Watteau and Gainsborough. An extension by Rick Mather added space to the compact gallery, which won the Museums and Heritage Award for Excellence in 2005; Wikivoyage calls it one of London's lesser-known treasures, and the grounds of Dulwich College and Dulwich Park nearby are worth a stroll.

Where:

London, United Kingdom