Editing National Gallery (section)

===The call for a National Gallery===
[[File:Sebastiano del Piombo, The Raising of Lazarus.jpg|alt=Realistic painting of a robed figure, arms extended, standing outside on a small platform among people doing various things such as talking to each other, but most of whom are looking at him.|thumb|upright|''[[The Raising of Lazarus (Sebastiano del Piombo)|The Raising of Lazarus]]'' by [[Sebastiano del Piombo]], from the [[Angerstein collection]]. This became the founding collection of the National Gallery in 1824. The painting has the [[accession number (library science)|accession number]] NG1, making it officially the first painting to enter the gallery.]]

The late 18th century saw the [[nationalisation]] of royal or princely art collections across mainland Europe. The Bavarian royal collection (now in the [[Alte Pinakothek]], Munich) opened to the public in 1779, that of the [[House of Medici|Medici]] in [[Florence]] around 1789 (as the [[Uffizi]] Gallery), and the Museum Français at the [[Louvre]] was formed out of the former French royal collection in 1793.{{sfn|Taylor|1999|pp=29–30}} [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]], however, did not follow other European countries, and the British [[Royal Collection]] still remains in the sovereign's possession. In 1777, the British government had the opportunity to buy an art collection of international stature, when the descendants of Sir [[Robert Walpole]] put [[Walpole collection|his collection]] up for sale. The MP [[John Wilkes]] argued for the government to buy this "invaluable treasure" and suggested that it be housed in "a noble gallery... to be built in the spacious garden of the British Museum".<ref>{{cite news|first=Andrew |last=Moore |title=Sir Robert Walpole's pictures in Russia |work=Magazine Antiques |date=2 October 1996 |url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1026/is_n4_v150/ai_18850830/pg_2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016151632/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1026/is_n4_v150/ai_18850830/pg_2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 October 2007 |access-date=14 October 2007}}</ref> Nothing came of Wilkes's appeal and 20 years later the collection was bought in its entirety by [[Catherine the Great]]; it is now to be found in the [[State Hermitage Museum]] in [[Saint Petersburg]].

A plan to acquire 150 paintings from the [[Orléans collection]], which had been brought to London for sale in 1798, also failed, despite the interest of both the King and the Prime Minister, [[William Pitt the Younger|Pitt the Younger]].{{sfn|Penny|2008|p=466}} The twenty-five paintings from that collection now in the gallery, including "NG1", arrived later by a variety of routes. In 1799, the dealer [[Noël Desenfans]] offered a ready-made national collection to the British government; he and his partner Sir [[Francis Bourgeois]] had assembled it for the king of [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Poland]], before the [[Third Partition of Poland|Third Partition]] in 1795 abolished Polish independence.{{sfn|Taylor|1999|pp=29–30}} This offer was declined and Bourgeois bequeathed the collection to his old school, [[Dulwich College]], on his death. The collection opened in 1814 in Britain's first purpose-built public gallery, the [[Dulwich Picture Gallery]]. The Scottish dealer William Buchanan and the collector Joseph Count Truchsess both formed art collections expressly as the basis for a future national collection, but their respective offers (both made in 1803) were also declined.{{sfn|Taylor|1999|pp=29–30}}

Following the Walpole sale many artists, including [[James Barry (painter)|James Barry]] and [[John Flaxman]], had made renewed calls for the establishment of a National Gallery, arguing that a British school of painting could only flourish if it had access to the canon of European painting. The [[British Institution]], founded in 1805 by a group of aristocratic connoisseurs, attempted to address this situation. The members lent works to exhibitions that changed annually, while an art school was held in the summer months. However, as the paintings that were lent were often mediocre,<ref>Fullerton, Peter (1979). ''Some aspects of the early years of the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom 1805–1825''. MA dissertation, Courtauld Institute of Art., p. 37</ref> some artists resented the Institution and saw it as a racket for the gentry to increase the sale prices of their [[Old Master]] paintings.{{sfn|Conlin|2006|p=45}} One of the Institution's founding members, Sir [[Sir George Beaumont, 7th Baronet|George Beaumont, Bt]], would eventually play a major role in the National Gallery's foundation by offering a gift of 16 paintings.

In 1823, another major art collection came on the market, which had been assembled by the recently deceased [[John Julius Angerstein]]. Angerstein was a Russian-born émigré banker based in London; his collection numbered 38 paintings, including works by [[Raphael]] and [[William Hogarth|Hogarth]]'s ''[[Marriage A-la-Mode (Hogarth)|Marriage A-la-Mode]]'' series. On 1 July 1823, [[George Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover|George Agar-Ellis]], a [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] politician, proposed to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] that it purchase the collection.{{sfn|Conlin|2006|p=51}} The appeal was given added impetus by Beaumont's offer, which came with two conditions: that the government buy the [[Angerstein collection]], and that a suitable building was to be found. The unexpected repayment of a war debt by [[Austrian Empire|Austria]] finally moved the government to buy Angerstein's collection, for £57,000.