London is home to a truly extraordinary collection of artwork, from around the world and across hundreds of years.
From Monet to Millais, Cézanne to Stubbs, we've picked out the fifteen not-to-miss paintings dotted around London's world-class galleries.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Fighting Temeraire (1839)
The National Gallery, London
Where? National Gallery
When the most popular British painters of the nineteenth century were painting historical scenes and quaint portraits of noblemen, JMW Turner was battling the elements to make landscape painting sexy. The ‘Fighting’ Temeraire was a real 98-gun ship that played a pivotal role in Britain’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. Aside from the historical significance, the real majesty of this painting comes in Turner’s masterful approach to sea, sky and, crucially, natural light, as the fiery sun bursts through a powder blue sky, igniting the water below.
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers (1888)
(The National Gallery, London )
The National Gallery, London
Where? National Gallery
Vincent Van Gogh’s extraordinary talent was never significantly recognised in his lifetime, but his astounding use of colour now captivates the millions who travel to see his paintings every year. Van Gogh painted seven versions of the Arles Sunflowers, but Van Gogh originally intended for there to be “a dozen”. These are now dotted around the world – or in one case, destroyed. The London version features a back drop of the Yellow House (where he lived with Paul Gauguin) and captures in thick impasto the textures and altering form of his sunflowers at varying stages of decay.
Georges Seurat, Bathers at Asnières (1884)
The National Gallery, London
Where? National Gallery
People go dotty for Georges Seurat, and the French painter wasn’t averse to going dotty himself. The post-Impressionist artist is best known for his development of a new painting technique, known as ‘Pointillism’, where realistic scenes are built up through the use of tiny individual dots of coloured sometimes unexpectedly brightly coloured paint. The Bathers at Asnières demonstrates the germination of this idea: not totally pointillist yet, the first large scale painting by Seurat renders an idyllic, summery scene through a blended patchwork of coloured brushstrokes.
Thomas Gainsborough, Mr and Mrs Andrews (about 1750)
The National Gallery, London
Where? National Gallery
As a founding member of the Royal Academy, Gainsborough’s place in British art history has been cemented – but he had to battle it out with Sir Joshua Reynolds, the Academy’s inaugural President, first. Gainsborough comes out on top nowadays, praised by critics for his refusal to make tired references to Italian Renaissance or classical art in his society portraits, picturing his subjects in contemporary dress. It is a purposeful, careful picture, which makes it all the more curious that it is unfinished: Mrs Andrews hands and lap are left bare, waiting – some theorise – for a child to hold.
The Arnolfini Portrait – Jan van Eyck
The National Gallery, London
Where? National Gallery
Contrary to first impressions, the female figure in this painting is not pregnant, but holding up her dress fabric in a way that makes her appear to be, as was the fashion of the time. This time was 1434, and the painting depicts Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife. What makes this painting really so extraordinary is that date, and the fact that Northern Renaissance painter Jan van Eyck has created such an exceptionally realistic setting for the couple, bathed in remarkably natural light, in a period where art and the real world were battling to come together.
Hans Holbein the Younger, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve ('The Ambassadors') (1533)
The National Gallery, London
Where? National Gallery
Much is said about the meaning of the objects that grace the table between Jean de Dinteville, French ambassador to England and Georges de Selve, the bishop of Lavaur. But where you really want to be looking at in this painting is the floor. Sitting on top of the mosaic is what first appears to be an abstract shape, perhaps a dropped cloth, yet when viewed from the very right hand side of the painting, the anamorphic object reforms into a perfectly realistically painted skull. In short, this painting is completely bonkers and totally fantastic.
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John Constable, The Hay Wain (1821)
The National Gallery, London
Where? National Gallery
Believe it or not, this painting failed to find a bidder when it was first shown at the Royal Academy in 1821. John Constable’s endlessly detailed depiction of quintessential English countryside is now pride of place in the National Gallery’s Nineteenth Century galleries, with its tempestuous spring skies and pockets of agricultural life enchanting millions every year. The numbers of art fans that covet The Hay Wain may have changed over the years, but it is said that the Suffolk scene has barely altered at all.
George Stubbs, Whistlejacket (about 1762)
The National Gallery, London
Where? National Gallery
Whistlejacket was a real horse, and a very fast one at that. He won the 2000 guineas at York in 1759, and three years later his rather pleased owner, the Marquess of Rockingham, commissioned artist George Stubbs to paint this majestic portrait of him. He is painted with his front legs rising to a “levade” in a style similar to many equestrian portraits of the time – but instead of sharing the frame with a king, war hero or even any discernible backdrop, Whistlejacket gets the canvas all to himself.
Leonardo da Vinci, 'The Virgin of the Rocks' (about 1491/2-9 and 1506-8)
(The National Gallery, London)
Where? National Gallery
The Virgin of the Rocks that hangs in the National Gallery points to one of the most mysterious periods in Leonardo’s career – as does an almost identical painting, also by Leonardo, in Paris’ Louvre. The Louvre version came first and contains subtle yet sinister differences – largely that the angle points menacingly at the baby Jesus and the Madonna’s hand is clawed as it hovers over St John the Baptist’s head. It has been suggested that Leonardo was ordered to change the composition of the commissioned alterpiece, resulting in the version on display at the National Gallery.
Claude Monet, The Water-Lily Pond (1899)
The National Gallery, London
Where? National Gallery
Monet had already made his name as a pioneer of Impressionism many years before a water-lily had even graced the tip of his paintbrush. It was only after Monet moved to Giverny in 1883 in his mid-forties, that his most famous subject began to draw his attention. He built the pond in question for the purpose of growing the water-lilies, and installed the now-iconic Japanese style bridge above it himself. The scene continued to fascinate him for decades afterwards, initially as an entire scene before his failing eyesight lead him to focus on near-abstract interpretations of the water itself.
Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia (1851-2)
Tate
Where? Tate Britain
“Long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death,” wrote William Shakespeare of the demise of Ophelia in Hamlet, who falls into a stream and drowns when she learns her lover has killed her father. Pre-Raphaelite Sir John Everett Milliais sought to recreate the scene for his painting, and in doing so, had model Lizzie Siddal lie in a bath fully clothed for hours during winter. The candles warming the water went out but Millais did not notice – Siddal caught a severe cold and almost died.
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, John Singer Sargent (1885-6)
Tate Britain/Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1887
Where? Tate Britain
American-born artist Sargent was a masterful portrait painter, acclaimed for his deft, effortless brushwork and extraordinary ability to translate natural light. This beautiful portrayal of English summer twilight depicts the daughters of friend illustrator Frederick Barnard lighting Chinese lanterns in a floral garden, the glow from the lamps combating the growing gloom. So dedicated was Sargent to capturing the hue of the evening, that he worked on the painting for just minutes each night as dusk drew in.
Montagne Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine – Paul Cézanne
Where? Courtauld Institute
Despite his death in 1906, Cézanne was arguably one of most influential artists of the twentieth century – he even earnt the nickname “the father of Modernism” from his followers. Working in the climate of Post-Impressionism, he was an obsessive analyst of space, form and patchworking these together using blocks of colour. Montagne Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine is a sublime example of Cézanne tackling these questions in a landscape, working on the ideas which lay the basis for the Picasso’s development of Cubism and pretty much the whole of Modern art.
William Shakespeare, associated with John Taylor (1600-1610)
National Portrait Gallery London
Where? National Portrait Gallery
It is not the artist that makes this painting famous – in fact, we’re not even sure who the artist is. It is, instead, the subject. We’re not sure if you’ve heard of William Shakespeare but he was quite good at writing plays. Relatively little is known about the life and times of Shakespeare, particularly in comparison to the breadth of his influence on literature and drama. The Chandos portrait, so known because of its ownership by the Dukes of Chandos, it is the only portrait thought to have been painted of Shakespeare during his lifetime.
Bacchus and Ariadne – Titian (1520-3)
The National Gallery, London
Where? The National Gallery
As Bacchus, the god of wine, bounds out of the forest with his band of reprobates, he is stopped in his tracks by Ariadne. It is love at first sight for Bacchus – you can tell from the way he has missed his step but appears to be floating. Venetian master Titian captures the scene with both boundless vitality and a skilled stillness – not to mention a stunning use of colour. This painting is often admired for the unprecedented brightness of its lapis lazuli sky. Yes, it is that blue in real life, and more so.
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