The Tate Gallery opened in 1897 with a benefaction from Sir Henry Tate. It was initially established as the National Gallery of British Art under the National Gallery Trustees, but the National Gallery and Tate Gallery Act of 1954 established it as an independant institution to house the national collections of British painting and international 20th-century art. Unlike the National Gallery, the Tate's collections include sculptures and graphics.
In 1987 the Clore Gallery opened to house the Turner Collection. Tate Liverpool opened in 1988 and Tate St Ives opened in 1993. The new Tate Modern opened in 2000 to house the collection of international 20th century art, whilst the British art remained at the original Tate Gallery, now renamed Tate Britain.A number of important paintings by major British artists are displayed at the National Gallery in order to show these works in a European context.
In 1997 the Tate and the National Gallery decided to rationalise their collections; over 50 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works painted before 1900, previously held at Tate, have been loaned to the National Gallery in return for some fourteen early 20th-century works from the National Gallery's Collection. The exchange allows the National Gallery to present a richer view of European painting in the second half of the 19th century than was possible before.