National Gallery Bicentenial
The National Gallery's neoclassical portico soars above Trafalgar Square, marking out the home of some of the world's most dazzling paintings. In Room 34 alone, hung against blue damask walls, visitors can see by Gainsborough, by Stubbs, and by Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’. A meander across marble and parquet floors leads to Van Gogh's and Seurat's in Room 43, Holbein's in Room 12, and in the quaintly named Room 17a, Leonardo da Vinci's ethereal . This preparatory drawing by the Renaissance genius has attracted visitors since 1962, when it was bought for £1,763,000; a sum raised by art charities, Gallery supporters and