BRITAIN THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE
HISTORY HERITAGE TRAVEL CULTURE
Welcome to Windsor Royal residences & riverside charm
WIN a luxury stay on a historic estate
SHAKESPEARE BY THE SEA
Telling tales on Brownsea Island
JOUST A MINUTE
Hidden hobbies of our kings and queens
The Gilded Age
A tale of American heiresses & impoverished aristocrats
Discover Suffolk The National Gallery turns 200 Magnificent Stowe House MAR/APR 2024 £5.50
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GO EAST Explore the picturesque seaside resorts and rural villages at England’s eastern edge WORDS CATHERINE JONES
PHOTO: © ANTHONY CULLEN
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ondon’s National Gallery, which celebrates its 200th birthday this spring, boasts one of the world’s most magnificent art collections, its 2,600 works (and counting) treasured by Britons, and its iconic Trafalgar Square home a magnet for tourists. But this giant of galleries, in fact, started very small. Its story began on 23 February 1824, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer took to his feet in the House of Commons to confirm how he had decided to spend what he called a ‘Godsend’ – a boost to the British coffers courtesy of the partial repayment of a multi-million-pound loan. The loan had been all but written off in the 25 years since it had been made to the Austrian government at the height of the French revolutionary wars. £60,000 of the unexpected windfall, he proposed, be allocated for the purchase and upkeep – “for the use of the public” – of 38 paintings belonging to the late financier John Julius Angerstein. Parliament emphatically approved the plan, and it was thus, without great fanfare, and by circumstance rather than design, that the gallery was born. 200 years on, so great is its worldwide reputation that it’s hard to believe Britain was behind the times. “Numerous European nations already had flourishing public art galleries,” explains curator Dr Susanna Avery-Quash. Campaigners in this country had long called for the creation of a similar institution, driven partly, she says, by national pride, but also a desire to create opportunities for ordinary Britons – including living British artists – to feast their eyes on ‘first-rate’ masterpieces. The embryo collection certainly had plenty of those. Acquired by the Russian-born Angerstein with help and advice from the artist Sir Thomas Lawrence, it included
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Previous page: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square This page, clockwise from top left: Gabrielli's The National Gallery 1886, Interior of Room 32; Turner's The Fighting Temeraire in Room 34; Seurat's Bathers at Asnières, 1884; Velázquez's The Rokeby Venus, 1647-51
PHOTOS: © CHRIS MOUYIARIS /AWL IMAGES/CROWN COPYRIGHT UK GOVERNMENT ART COLLECTION/THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON
landmarks
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PHOTOS: © SUZANNE KENTISH
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Magnificent Stowe House has had a tumultuous history, from its days as a ducal palace for one family to its current life as a boarding school that’s home to 900 pupils WORDS ELEANOR DOUGHTY
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COUNTY of KINGS Berkshire’s royal seal of approval stretches back to the time of William the Conqueror. Soak up the ages-old pageantry and ceremony at Windsor Castle, but don’t miss this historic county’s quieter side WORDS NATASHA FOGES
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PHOTOS: © DOUG HARDING/TRAVEL PIX COLLECTION/AWL IMAGES
royal berkshire
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