The National Gallery Tour for Kids

This beautiful piece of art is really, really old – it was painted in the 14th century – that’s over 600 years ago! It shows a colourful but sad scene of Jesus and two other men on crosses, with lots of people, gathering at their feet.  And under the main painting, there are some smaller circular paintings of important saints and religious characters. The whole piece is set in a beautiful ornate golden frame. 

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When you look at some paintings they might look very faded or cracked. Perhaps the colours seem wrong. Take a look at Tobias and The Angel by Andrea del Verrocchio, because there definitely seems to be something amiss!

The painting is based on a famous old tale. An old blind man sends his son Tobias and his dog on an errand. Tobias meets a stranger on the way who helps him out when he gets attacked by a fish – and even helps him find a wife. And if that wasn’t enough, on his way home the stranger helps Tobias cure his father’s blindness. But how is this all possible? Well, the stranger is really the angel Raphael!

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It's never good when a famous painting gets damaged! There are different types of damage that can affect paintings, some of them accidental, some intentional – such as the vandalism which affected The Rokeby Venus in 1914.

A lot of the work done here at National Gallery is actually repairing the damage to paintings. There is a painting that was very difficult for the gallery to fix!

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This painting is super colourful! And it's of a very posh lady - the Marquise de Seignelay. It’s by a French artist called Pierre Mignard.

The Marquise was a real noblewoman who lived over 400 years ago, which was when this painting was made. It’s a riot of rich costume and colour and has quite a story behind it too.

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What happens when paintings get damaged? The Adoration of the Shepherds by Guido Reni was damaged a few times on its way to the National Gallery, it had rather an exciting adventure!

The painting is a nativity scene. Mary and Joseph are shown with baby Jesus in the centre and they’re surrounded by shepherds. More shepherds can be seen in the distance, and angels hover overhead. The light coming from baby Jesus is so bright, it lights up all the people around him!

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This painting is one of the most famous portraits in the National Gallery. It's a very life-like painting of a famous racehorse called Whistlejacket by an artist called George Stubbs!

Whistlejacket was born in 1749 and his most famous victory was in a race over 4 miles for 2,000 guineas at York in August 1759. Stubbs's huge picture was painted in about 1762 for the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Whistlejacket's owner, and a great fan of Stubbs's artwork.

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This is a painting called The Assumption of the Virgin that was painted in 1475 by Francesco Botticini. It was on the wall in a burial chapel in S. Pier Maggiore, Florence, Italy. The man kneeling down on the left is Matteo Palmieri, who's a civil servant!

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A Bermejo painting is the subject of Episode 8!

This is called Saint Michael Triumphant over the Devil. It was painted by one Bartolomé Bermejo in 1468.

If you look really closely, you'll see a really scary devil character at the bottom with a big grinning smile. It was probably the central panel of an altarpiece which was in the church of San Miguel (Saint Michael) in Tous, near Valencia.

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Episode 7 is about a very special painting, and one that’s a little bit dotty! 

The Bathers at Asnieres is by a French impressionist artist called Georges Seurat. He was very famous and is particularly well known for creating a style of painting which used very small dots of colour to create scenes. This style of painting is known as pointillism!

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In Episode 6 The Sunflowers have been taking a look at Turner's The Fighting Temeraire!

Joseph Mallord William Turner was a really famous artist who lived from 1775 - 1851. He was especially famous for his paintings of dramatic skies and weather. He even went on trains and ships to study the movement of the sky and how to create it using paint! 

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