Scottish National Gallery

The origins of Scotland's national collection lie with the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland, founded in 1819. It began to acquire paintings, and in 1828 the Royal Institution building opened on The Mound. In 1826, the Scottish Academy was founded by a group of artists who, dissatisfied with its policies, seceded from the Royal Institution, and in 1838 it became the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA). A key aim of the RSA was the founding of a national collection. It began to build up a collection and from 1835 rented exhibition space within the Royal Institution building. In the 1840s, plans were put in place for a new building to house the RSA. The building was originally divided along the middle, with the east half housing the exhibition galleries of the RSA, and the western half containing the new National Gallery of Scotland, In 2012, the gallery's umbrella organisation, National Galleries of Scotland, underwent a rebranding exercise, and National Gallery of Scotland was renamed the Scottish National Gallery. In 2023, the organisation was rebranded once more, and adopted the shorter name National Galleries Scotland. Each of its galleries was also rebranded and the Scottish National Gallery is now billed as National Galleries Scotland: National. ==Building==

William Playfair's building—like its neighbour, the Royal Scottish Academy—was designed in the form of an ancient Greek temple. While Playfair designed the RSA in the Doric order, the National Gallery building is in the Ionic order. The main east and west elevations have plain pilastrading with the higher central transverse block having hexastyle Ionic porticoes. Paired Ionic columns in antis are flanked by tetrastyle Ionic porticoes at north and south. The design reflects the building's original dual purpose being divided longitudinally with the exhibition galleries of the RSA to the east and the National Gallery to the west. The new Princes Street Gardens entrance and underground space opened in 2004 was designed by John Miller and Partners. Construction took five years and cost £32 million. The area contains a lecture theatre, education area, shop, restaurant, an interactive gallery, and a link to the RSA building. In January 2019, construction work began on a project to alter the lower level areas and to create extended exhibition space. It is planned that the Princes Street Gardens entrance will become the main entrance of the gallery; to facilitate access, East Princes Street Gardens is being re-landscaped with sloping paths and 52 trees have been felled, to be replaced with 22 newly planted saplings. The redevelopment is delayed until at least late 2022, as a result of asbestos being found in part of the structure and due to the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. File:Scottish National Gallery.jpg|Twin porticoes at the main entrance with the original name inscribed on the frieze. File:Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh. - geograph.org.uk - 1475030.jpg|Playfair's ionic columns File:SNGInt.jpg|Interior of the ground floor main galleries File:National Gallery of Scotland - geograph.org.uk - 428845.jpg|The Princes Street Gardens entrance (opened 2004) ==Research==

The research facilities at the Scottish National Gallery include the Prints and Drawings Collection of over 30,000 works on paper, from the early Renaissance to the late nineteenth century; and the reference-only Research Library. The Research Library covers the period from 1300 to 1900 and holds approximately 50,000 volumes of books, journals, slides, and microfiches, as well as some archival material relating to the collections, exhibitions and history of the National Gallery. The Print Room or Research Library can be accessed by appointment. ==Collection==

At the heart of the National Gallery's collection is a group of paintings transferred from the Royal Scottish Academy. This includes masterpieces by Jacopo Bassano, Van Dyck and Giambattista Tiepolo. The National Gallery did not receive its own purchase grant until 1903. In the Gallery's main ground floor rooms are displayed a number of major large-scale canvases such as Benjamin West's Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag (1786), Rubens's The Feast of Herod (1633 or c.1637-38) and a pair of paintings by Titian, Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto (purchased jointly with the National Gallery, London). The Scottish National Gallery has also jointly acquired one of Canova's sculptures of The Three Graces with the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Scottish National Gallery has a notable collection of works by Scottish artists, including several landscapes by Alexander Nasmyth, and several works by Sir Henry Raeburn — of particular note his portraits of Alexander Ranaldson Macdonell and Sir Walter Scott), and his celebrated painting, The Skating Minister. There are also a number of works by artists of the Glasgow School such as James Guthrie. The Gallery also holds a collection of works by English painters, such as Constable's The Vale of Dedham and a sizeable collection of water colours by Turner which are traditionally displayed in January. The Monarch of the Glen, a painting considered to depict the grandeur of the wildlife and scenery of the Scottish Highlands, is also held in the gallery, the work of the English painter Sir Edwin Landseer. Notable works Key works of art displayed at the National Gallery include: File:Raphael The Holy Family with a Palm Tree.jpg|Holy Family with a Palm Tree (Raphael, 1506) File:Tizian 015 (2).jpg|Diana and Callisto (Titian, 1559) File:Frans Hals 104 WGA version.jpg|Portrait of François Wouters(Frans Hals, about 1644) File:Thomas Gainsborough - The Honourable Mrs Graham (1757 - 1792) - Google Art Project.jpg|Portrait of Mrs Mary Graham (Thomas Gainsborough, 1775) File:Sir Joshua Reynolds - The Ladies Waldegrave - Google Art Project.jpg|The Ladies Waldegrave (Joshua Reynolds, 1780) File:Benjamin West - Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag by the Intrepidity of Colin Fitzgerald ('The Death of the Stag') - Google Art Project.jpg|Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag (Benjamin West, 1786) File:Reverend Robert Walker (1755 - 1808) Skating on Duddingston Loch.jpg|The Rev Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch (Sir Henry Raeburn, 1790s) File:Mary Nisbet.jpg|Portrait of Mary Nisbet (François Gérard, 1803) File:John Constable - The Vale of Dedham.jpg|The Vale of Dedham (John Constable, 1828) File:The Murder of David Rizzio.jpg|The Murder of David Rizzio William Allan (1833) File:The Monarch of the Glen, Edwin Landseer, 1851.png|The Monarch of the Glen (Edwin Landseer, 1851) File:Frederic Edwin Church - Niagara Falls, from the American Side - Google Art Project.jpg|Niagara Falls, from the American Side (Frederic Edwin Church, 1867) Image:Claude Monet - Haystacks, Snow Effect - NG 2283 - National Galleries of Scotland.jpg|Haystacks, Snow Effect (Claude Monet, 1891) Image:La vision après le sermon (Paul Gauguin).jpg|Vision après le Sermon (Paul Gauguin, 1888) Other artists represented in the collection include: ==See also==