The National Gallery of Scotland (now called the
National) was opened to the public in 1859. Located on
The Mound in the centre of Scotland's capital city,
Edinburgh, the building was originally shared between the National Gallery and the collection of the
Royal Scottish Academy (RSA). The gallery was a success, and in response to increasing public demand for the celebration of Scottish history and culture, the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG) was opened in 1889 to display portraits of noted Scots. The National Gallery collection was nevertheless constrained by lack of space in the premises on The Mound, and the '''''' (
6 Edw. 7. c. 50) granted to the RSA perpetual tenancy of the Royal Institution building in front of the National Gallery, allowing the National Galleries collection to take over the entire National Gallery of Scotland building. Since then, the Royal Institution building became known as the
Royal Scottish Academy. In 1959, National Galleries of Scotland expanded further with the establishment of the
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA), housed in
Inverleith House in the
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Twentieth-century artworks in the National Galleries collection were relocated to the new gallery, and the gallery began to acquire many more objects after 1960. By 1984, the modern art gallery had outgrown its first home, and the SNGMA relocated to the vacant
John Watson's Institution building, a former school. In 1999, the SNGMA expanded with the opening of
The Dean Gallery (now called Modern Two) in a former orphanage opposite the Gallery of Modern Art. A further rebranding was undertaken in 2023, when a new
visual identity was introduced, including a three-dimensional
logo consisting of a pair coloured rectangles placed at an angle, said to "evoke the idea of discovery and different perspectives". The names of the individual gallery buildings were considered to be too long, and were given "snappier and more memorable" names within the branding family:
National,
Portrait and
Modern. == List of national galleries ==