Thank you, Lord Annan, for your very kind welcome.
I am delighted to be here this evening. To speak very simply, the National Gallery is one of our country's most cherished institutions. It is surely one of the most important and comprehensive collections of masterpieces, from the 14th to the early 20th centuries, in the world. This is underlined by the number of visitors who come to see the collection each year and which has now risen to over two and a half million. The Trustees and the staff, Lord Annan, have been most successful in making the National Gallery a welcoming and enjoyable place to visit. [end p1]
This great collection was voted by Parliament into existence in 1824. Some interesting points were made in a debate of April 2nd that year, when £60,000 was voted for the purchase and display of Mr. Angerstein 's pictures. The Government was urged “not to purchase whole collections, but to buy single pictures of undisputed excellence and that, too, at a liberal price” . When a member asked who would superintend the superintendant of the new collection, the Frederick RobinsonChancellor of the Exchequer replied that “the general control and superintendence would be in the Lords of the Treasury. He did not apprehend, however, that it would be necessary to exercise that control with any degree of violence.” [end p2]
On the 2nd July of that year, a Treasury Minute nominated a Committee of six gentlemen “to undertake the superintendence of the National Gallery of Pictures and to give such directions as may be necessary from time to time for the proper conservation of them to the Keeper, who will be instructed to conform to their orders” . The name of “Trustees” seems to have been given to the Committee from almost the first; and it is a great pleasure to me to be able today publicly to thank the present Trustees, the successors of those six gentlemen, and the Director, the successor of the Keeper of 1824, for all the devoted service they give to this place. [end p3]
Now, I do not know how helpful it may be for a Prime Minister to express his or her views about paintings. The “Guide to the National Gallery” reproduces that charming picture of one of my predecessors, Sir Robert Peel, showing his pictures to an admiring audience. Sir Robert, apparently, took against the early Italian masterpieces which the Gallery had been buying, calling them “curiosities” , and he himself formed an admirable collection of Dutch pictures, many of which the Gallery later bought. “Those were the days” , his successor at many removes may perhaps be allowed to feel this evening. [end p4]
I am pleased that the Gallery's purchasing policy has kept you in the forefront of the world's major art collections, and it is good that you steadily expand your collection for the nation by acquiring outstanding works. In recent years some of the most significant acquisitions have been purchased through private treaty sales. This arrangement is itself enlightened and, I should like to think, typical of our country's best traditions. It offers the private owner, the vendor, the likelihood of receiving more money from sale to an institution, through tax concessions, than he would receive from a sale at auction. At the same time, it benefits the national collections and ultimately the public. [end p5]
An outstanding collection merits the highest standards of display, conservation and environmental control. These are areas in which the National Gallery has an international reputation. We have inherited great works collected in earlier times. It is our duty to safeguard them by the best modern methods—as will be done in these rooms which I have been invited to open this evening—for the admiration and enjoyment of future generations.
I am sure that all your plans and aims will be greatly helped by this latest phase of the Gallery's renovation and development. What has been achieved is a credit to all those who have been engaged in it. There has been excellent co-operation between the Gallery's own Scientific Department and the Department of the Environment in planning the system of lighting [end p6] and of air conditioning which, I understand, is the best now available. And the improvements have been sensitively made in a way which has retained the original character of the building. I do congratulate all of you who have been involved.
Lord Annan, I have already mentioned Sir Robert Peel, and you will know how he “felt that the National Gallery would not only contribute to the cultivation of the arts, but also to the cementing of the bonds of union between the richer and poorer orders.” Perhaps today we should not phrase it exactly like that. Yet I am sure that the Gallery will continue to unite people from many countries in their love and appreciation of great works of art.
It gives me great pleasure to declare these Rooms open.