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Last week, I shared our enjoyment of Nolly, a mini-series with Helena Bonham Carter. Tina included The Empty House by Rosamunde Pilcher in her April round-up post, even though she didn’t like it very much.

The National Gallery celebrates the 200th birthday of its founding today — and for the rest of the year. The art museum’s collection began with the purchase of 38 paintings (including works by Raphael) from the estate of John Julius Angerstein. The museum was originally located in his townhouse.

The size and lack of stature of the building was something of a national embarrassment. Imagine comparing the above to the Louvre, which was already established in Paris.

The National Gallery is currently housed (and has been since 1838) in the building at the back of Trafalgar square with the columns and the dome.

This photo is from our 2014 trip. The chalk artists in the foreground are making national flags.

Here’s a video to celebrate this big anniversary.

The tickets for tonight’s party are sold out, but there will be an outdoor light show at 9pm tonight and, again, at 9pm tomorrow night. Today’s special member tours are also fully booked, but I enjoyed reading about them, anyway. One is a tour of the collection looking at themes of celebration. The other is a visit to the Library with the archivist to see artefacts related to the creation and development of the museum.

For those of us who couldn’t get tickets and are nowhere near London, anyway, here are a couple of ways to celebrate from home.

In this video, the National Gallery director talks about one of the iconic paintings in the National Gallery collection.

An award-winning virtual exhibition was created in 2022. I hit the play button at the bottom of the descriptions, which allowed me to listen to the details about the painting while I scrolled in to look more closely.

We didn’t make it inside the National Gallery during our visit to London — one of many reasons that I hope to go back some day. Have you visited the National Gallery?