Guildhall Art Gallery Explained

Guildhall Art Gallery
Established:	1885 (original), 1999 (current)
Location:	Moorgate area, City of London, England
Type:	Art museum
Collection Size:	About 4,000 items
Coordinates:	51.5155°N -0.0914°W
Architect:	Richard Gilbert Scott (current building)

The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the art collection of the City of London, England. The museum is located in the Moorgate area of the City of London. It is a stone building in a semi-Gothic style intended to be sympathetic to the historic Guildhall, which is adjacent and to which it is connected internally.

History

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]

The first purpose-built gallery for displaying the collection was completed in . This building was destroyed in The Blitz in 1941, resulting in the loss of 164 paintings, drawings, watercolours, and prints, and 20 sculptures.^[2] 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.^[3] The new facility, which was intended to house a collection of about 4,000 items, was completed in .^[4]

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.^[5]

Vivien Knight was head of the Gallery, from 1983 until her death in 2009.^[6]

Amphitheatre

See main article: Amphitheatre (London). 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.^[7]

See also

• Alfred Temple, first director of the original gallery
• Statue of Margaret Thatcher, Guildhall Art Gallery

Further reading

• Ceremonial Pictures (1950) "Guildhall Art Gallery Illustrated Handbooks, no. 1", Guildhall.
• English Portraits (1950) "Guildhall Art Gallery Illustrated Handbooks, no. 2", Guildhall.
• London Pictures (1951) "Guildhall Art Gallery Illustrated Handbooks, no. 3", Guildhall.
• English Landscapes (1952) "Guildhall Art Gallery Illustrated Handbooks, no. 4", Guildhall.
• Narrative Pictures (1953) "Guildhall Art Gallery Illustrated Handbooks, no. 5", Guildhall.
• Victorian Art: Reproductions by the Collotype Process of Some of the Pictures in the Loan Exhibition Held in the Art Gallery of the Corporation of London, At the Guildhall, in 1897. With Descriptive and Biographical Notes (1897), Blades.
• Callender, Geoffrey, (1928), Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Pictures and Prints from the Macpherson Collection, Guildhall Art Gallery.
• Feaver, William (ed.), (2004), Julian Perry. Testament: The Epping Forest Paintings, Guildhall Art Gallery.
• Howgego, J. L., (1965), Canaletto and his Influence on London Artists, Guildhall Art Gallery.
• Hyde, Ralph, (1999), London in Paintings, Guildhall Art Gallery.
• Knight, Vivien, (1999), Portrait Paintings in Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Library.
• Knight, Vivien, (1999), Victorian Pictures in the Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Library.
• Scott, Elizabeth, (2020), Guildhall Art Gallery, Director's Choice Scala.
• Solicari, Sonia (ed.), (2013), Victoriana: A Miscellany, Guildhall Art Gallery, accompanies the exhibition "Victoriana: The Art of Revival"
• Temple, A. G. (ed.), (1893), Reproductions by the Collotype Process of the Pictures Presented to the Guildhall Art Gallery of the Corporation of the City of London by Sir John Gilbert R.A., Blades.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Collections History . City of London . 24 July 2021 . 24 July 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210724191915/https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/attractions-museums-entertainment/guildhall-galleries/guildhall-art-gallery/collections-history . dead .
2. Web site: History of Guildhall Art Gallery . Guildhall Art Gallery . 24 July 2021 . 24 July 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210724191914/https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/attractions-museums-entertainment/guildhall-galleries/guildhall-art-gallery/history . dead .
3. News: Richard Gilbert Scott obituary. 12 July 2017. The Guardian. 24 July 2021.
4. Web site: London's Guildhall reveals hidden gems among collection of 4,000 paintings. The Guardian. 23 December 2014. 22 July 2019.
5. Web site: The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782. Art.UK. 22 July 2019.
6. Web site: Rose . Andrea . Knight, Vivien Margaret (1953–2009) . ONDB. OUP. 22 November 2017.
7. Web site: London's Roman Amphitheatre – Guildhall Galleries – City of London. www.cityoflondon.gov.uk. 18 June 2017. 2 July 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170702162839/https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/visit-the-city/attractions/guildhall-galleries/Pages/londons-roman-amphitheatre.aspx. dead.