1 of 8

Write now Article Tools

Housing the greatest collection of British art which spans a five-hundred year period from 1500 to the present day, Tate Britain is deserving of a visit by any serious student or lover of British art. The displays are arranged chronologically and are changed annually, as the collection is too large to be shown in its entirety at any one time. One of the earliest painters whose work is on display is Nicholas Hilliard, born circa 1547.

The eighteenth century is well represented: Hogarth was innovative in the early part of that century and made an important contribution to establishing an English school of painting. Those who love traditional portraits of that era will delight in the work of Gainsborough and Reynolds.

The Romantic period of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is given particular attention at Tate Britain, with Constable and Blake each having a room for their work alone; Constable's main body of work depicts the 'rural scenery of England' (the artist's own phrase), and here you can see the renowned 'Flatford Mill'. Turner's three hundred canvases and thousands of watercolours and sketches led to the building of the Clore Gallery at Tate in order to do them justice. One of the greatest of Turner's masterpieces on show is the breathtaking 'Norham Castle, Sunrise', of 1845.

The nineteenth-century Pre-Raphaelites Rossetti, Millais, Burne-Jones, Holman Hunt and Madox Brown who aimed at 'truth to nature', have a room devoted to their work. They reacted against what they saw as the 'frivolity' of many of their contemporaries, and their religious and romantic paintings are noted for their luminosity. Millais' 'Ophelia' (from Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet'), drowning in the river, is one of Tate Britain's greatest attractions.

The gallery's collection does of course include sculpture as well as painting. Moving into the twentieth century, you can see work by Henry Moore such as the 'Recumbent Figure', a female nude that seems almost to resemble a landscape, or Barbara Hepworth's 'Discs in Echelon' and 'Figure of a Woman'.

Painters of the twentieth century are represented by Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Stanley Spencer and David Hockney to name but a few. In a slightly more contemporary vein, there are displays of the work of the Young British Artists such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas, famous for their in-your-face art that reflects pop culture.

The gallery holds temporary exhibitions for which there is an entrance fee admission to

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Museum reviews: The Tate Britain (Tate Gallery), London, UK?
We want to hear your view. Write now!