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Public and commercial galleries, sculptures on streets, artists' houses and famous auction houses. Use the filters to narrow it down. Exhibitions are listed where possible.
England's first purpose-built public art gallery, Soane's masterpiece of 1817, with a collection assembled for a king of Poland who lost his throne before he could take it.
Public gallery
Also in Museums.
Noël Desenfans and Francis Bourgeois were commissioned in 1790 to buy a national collection for the King of Poland; by the time they had it, Poland had been partitioned and the king had abdicated, and the pictures were theirs. Bourgeois left them to Dulwich College in 1811 with money for a gallery and one condition, that he, Desenfans and Desenfans's wife be buried in it, and John Soane built both: a run of rooms lit entirely from lanterns in the roof, so that no window competes with a painting, and a mausoleum in the middle where the three lie in sarcophagi under amber light. It opened in 1817, the first public gallery in England built for the purpose, and every top-lit museum since owes it something. The pictures are Old Masters of the first rank, Rembrandt's Girl at a Window and his tiny Jacob de Gheyn, stolen four times and always found, Poussin, Rubens, Murillo, Watteau, Canaletto and Gainsborough, in a village setting with a garden and a café; the exhibitions in the Rick Mather wing are the other reason to come.
Step-free access
| Monday | Closed |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Wednesday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Thursday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Friday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Sunday | 10:00 – 17:00 |
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.