About the Library

The National Gallery Library was established in 1869 with the purchase of the private library of some 2,000 volumes belonging to the late Sir Charles Eastlake. It currently contains over 75,000 printed volumes relevant to the study of the history of Western European painting from the 13th to the early 20th century. It is not a public library, but exists primarily to provide a service to National Gallery staff and to visiting academics, postgraduate research students and other scholars who cannot obtain the material they require elsewhere.

The subject coverage of the Library is very specialised, and a considerable proportion of the collection consists of foreign language material. The majority of the stock is concerned directly or indirectly with painters and paintings in the Western tradition, 1200 - 1900, and publications relating to other artistic media and periods are not covered in any depth. Particular emphasis is placed on the artists and schools of painting represented in the Gallery.

The Library's holdings include:-

• monographs, catalogues raisonnées, exhibition catalogues, and pamphlets principally in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
  
  
• works on iconography predominantly concerned with secular and Western religious themes
  
  
• permanent collection catalogues from museums and galleries throughout the world
  
  
• a fine collection of publications relating to private collections in this country and abroad
  
  
• a significant collection of early guidebooks
  
  
• a strong collection of early source works consisting of approximately 2,000 titles published before 1850
  
  
• catalogues of picture sales from major auction houses and reasonably complete runs of the catalogues of certain commercial dealers
  
  
• over 250 periodical titles, of which 150 are current.
  
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