Guildhall Art Gallery

The City of London Corporation had commissioned and collected portraits since 1670, originally to hang in the Guildhall. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Corporation's art collections grew through gifts and bequests to include history paintings and other genres of art.^[1] A notable donation came with the bequest of the businessman and art collector Charles Gassiot in 1902 who left over a hundred paintings to the gallery.^[2] This massively bolstered the Guildhall's collection of Victorian era art and included works by Clarkson Stanfield, David Roberts, John Everett Millais, William Dyce and James Tissot.^[3]

The first purpose-built gallery for displaying the collection was completed in 1885 (141 years ago) (1885). This building was destroyed in The Blitz in 1941, resulting in the loss of 164 paintings, drawings, watercolours, and prints, and 20 sculptures.^[4] It was not until 1985 that the City of London Corporation decided to redevelop the site and build a new gallery. The building was designed in a postmodern style by the British architect Richard Gilbert Scott.^[5][6] The new facility, which was intended to house a collection of about 4,000 items, was completed in 1999 (27 years ago) (1999).^[7]

The centrepiece of the collection, John Singleton Copley's huge painting depicting The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, was placed in a prominent position in the entrance hall of the gallery.^[8]

Vivien Knight was head of the Gallery, from 1983 until her death in 2009.^[9]

The Guildhall complex was built on the site of London's Roman amphitheatre, and some of the remains of this are displayed in situ in a room in the basement of the art gallery.^[10]

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  Winter Landscape with a Frozen River and Figures by Hendrick Avercamp, c.1620
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  Boy with a Glass and a Lute by Frans Hals, 1626
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  Cityscape with a Church and a Square by Jan van der Heyden, c.1669
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  Panoramic View of Haarlem by Jacob van Ruisdael, 1670
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  Blackfriars Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral by William Marlow, c.1762
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  The Murder of Rizzio by John Opie, 1787
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  Portrait of Thomas Tomkins by Joshua Reynolds, 1789
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  The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782 by John Singleton Copley, 1791
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  John Philip Kemble as Coriolanus by Thomas Lawrence, 1798
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  Portrait of John Boydell by William Beechey, 1801
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  Old Drury Lane Theatre on Fire by Abraham Pether, 1809
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  Shrimp Boys at Cromer by William Collins, 1815
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  Barmouth Sands by William Collins, 1835
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  St Paul's Cathedral with the Lord Mayor's Procession by David Roberts, 1836
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  Queen Victoria Enthroned in the House of Lords by George Hayter, 1838
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  Keats Listening to a Nightingale on Hampstead Heath by Joseph Severn, 1845
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  In the Gulf of Venice by Clarkson Stanfield, 1848
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  The Wounded Cavalier by William Shakespeare Burton
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  The Forum, Rome, 1859
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  Henry VI at Towton by William Dyce, 1860
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  On the Road from Waterloo to Paris by Marcus Stone, 1863
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  My First Sermon by John Everett Millais, 1863
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  Sanctuary by Richard Burchett, 1867
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  The Last Evening by James Tissot, 1873
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  Too Early by James Tissot, 1873
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  La Ghirlandata by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1873
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  Margaret of Anjou Being Taken Prisoner After the Battle of Tewkesbury by John Gilbert, 1875
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  The Music Lesson by Frederic Leighton, 1877
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  Clytemnestra by John Collier, 1882
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  The Thames by Moonlight with Southwark Bridge by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1884
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  The Violinist by George Adolphus Storey, 1886
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  The Ninth of November, 1888 by William Logsdail, 1890
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  The Betrothed by John William Godward, 1892
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  On a Fine Day by Elizabeth Forbes, 1903

• Alfred Temple, first director of the original gallery
• Statue of Margaret Thatcher (London Guildhall)