Museums and Galleries
Founded in 1856, the aim of the National Portrait Gallery, London is ‘to promote through the medium of portraits the appreciation and understanding of the men and women who have made and are making British history and culture, and ... to promote the appreciation and understanding of portraiture in all media’
The National Gallery houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th to 20th centuaries. It is among the most visited art museums in the world, after the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The National Gallery came began when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein in 1824. After that initial purchase the Gallery was shaped...
The British Museum was founded in 1753, the first national public museum in the world...