National Gallery of Scotland
The National Gallery of Scotland is the country’s oldest art museum, located in the historic center of Edinburgh. The gallery was opened to the public in 1859 and today it is one of the world’s finest collections of fine art. The collections represented here consist of paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints and sculptures from the early Renaissance to the 20th century, a collection of works by contemporary artists and portraits of great Scotsmen.
.Video: National Gallery of Scotland
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The volume of art held at the National Gallery is so large that the collections have been divided into three sections. The main museum is housed in an old building designed by the famous architect William Henry Playfair, and exhibits a collection of paintings from the 17th through 19th centuries. The second part of the museum, the National Portrait Gallery, features portraits painted by Scottish masters from the 16th century to the present day. It also includes the National Photographic Collection. The third building of the art museum is occupied by the Gallery of Modern Art, which displays a large collection of works by surrealist artists.
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The museum’s holdings are added to in many ways, including paintings donated by the British Queen and members of the royal family. Art lovers can see works by Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Botticelli, Van Dyck, Velazquez, El Greco, William Turner, Delacroix, Gauguin, Francisco de Goya, Degas, Hals, Monet, Sisley, Corot, Cézanne, Pissarro, Hockney, Poussin and Van Gogh at the National Gallery of Scotland. One of the masterpieces in the National Gallery of Scotland is an altarpiece of the Holy Trinity by the talented Flemish artist Hugo van der Goos, who lived in the 15th century..Visitors
Entrance to the museum is free. The doors of the National Gallery of Scotland are open any day. It is open from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm, and on Thursdays until 7.00 pm. In August, when Edinburgh is particularly busy with tourists, the museum welcomes visitors until 18.00.
.Special buses run between the National Gallery of Scotland, the national Gallery of Modern Art and the Scottish National Gallery of Portraiture, with fares costing £1.
.In addition to the permanent exhibitions, the museum buildings host year-round exhibitions featuring works of art from the museum’s holdings and private collectors’ collections. Of great interest to specialists is the library of the museum. It contains more than 50 thousand books and magazines about the history of Scottish art, exhibitions and collections of the gallery.
.How to get there
The main building of the National Gallery of Scotland is located in the historic center of the city, on the artificial Maund Hill, next to Waverley train station. The streetcar and buses nos. 6, 23, 27, 41, 42 and 67 stop near the museum.
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