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One of the first 38 paintings that formed the National Gallery’s collection is to make a rare excursion to mark the gallery’s 200th anniversary.
Claude Lorrain’s 1641 painting Seaport with the Embarkation of Saint Ursula is to go on loan to the Palace of Westminster next month for three weeks, to hang in St Stephen’s Hall.
The painting was one of the 38 sold from the estate of the financier John Julius Angerstein in 1823 and bought by the government of Lord Liverpool to establish an art gallery to match other European countries’ capita cities. The National Gallery opened in Angerstein’s house in Pall Mall on 10th May 1824, moving to the purpose-built gallery building, designed by William Wilkins, in Trafalgar Square, in 1838. Admission was free.
The painting may even have inspired a famous British architect. The tall building to the distant left of the port resembles the “Italianate” architecture of 18–19 Kensington Palace Gardens, designed in 1845 by Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the Houses of Parliament.
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