Excerpt from Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery: With Biographical Notices of the Deceased Painters, British and Modern Schools
The National Gallery of Pictures was founded in 1824, during the administration of the Earl of Liverpool, by the purchase of the collection of John Julius Angerstein, Esq., consisting of thirty-eight pictures, comprising nine specimens of the British school. This collection, which thus formed the nucleus of the present National Gallery, was secured to the nation by a grant of Parliament, voted April the 2nd, 1824; and it was opened to the public in the house of Mr. Angerstein in Pall Mall, on May the 10th of that year.
In 1826 the collection was increased by the liberal donation of sixteen pictures from Sir George Beaumont, including five works of the British School; and in 1831 it was enriched by the valuable bequest of the Rev. William Holwell Carr, comprising, however, only one English picture.
Up to the year 1847, nearly a quarter of a century after its foundation, the National Gallery contained only forty-one pictures of the British School; but on December the 22nd of that year it was greatly increased by the munificent donation of Robert Vernon, Esq., who presented by deed of gift to the Trustees of the National Gallery, a collection of one hundred and fifty-seven pictures, all, with only two exceptions, by painters of the British School. And on the 25th of September 1856, the national collection was further largely increased by the acquisition, in pursuance of an order of the Court of Chancery, of the great bequest of Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A., consisting of about one hundred finished oil pictures, and some thousand drawings and sketches in water-colours, &c.
The National Gallery British School contains about three hundred pictures, by seventy masters of British birth or descent, for the most part presented or bequeathed to the Trustees. Complete lists of the donations and bequests, and of the Turner drawings and sketches permanently exhibited to the public, will be found at the end of the Catalogue.
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