National Gallery

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 mainly by its early directors, notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which today account for two-thirds of the collection.