Episode two: Towards modernity (1900-1945)

Now a gallery to rival any of its European counterparts, as the 20th century dawns the National Gallery faces new challenges. There was great competition in a burgeoning international art market and rocketing costs of acquiring masterpieces. The Art Fund was established, allowing the Gallery to acquire Diego Velázquez’s 'The Toilet of Venus’ and Hans Holbein the Younger’s ‘Christina of Denmark’. And by the mid-point in this new century, it would have faced - and risen to - the enormous challenges brought about by the First and Second World War.