For the first time in the history of the NGV, a selection of forty of the finest European paintings from the collection are being taken off permanent display to travel to the Auckland City Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki in New Zealand. The Directors of both museums are hoping to attract high visitor numbers there to enjoy some of our finest paintings.

This major exhibition will show-case the painting collection, reflecting its richness and diversity by showing a breadth of works spanning a significant part of the history of western artistic tradition. Included are works from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries representing a myriad of painting styles from all over Europe.

Works range in scope and style from the intimate Man of Sorrows by Memling, a devotional piece for private contemplation, to the comparatively ostentatious view of Venice by Canaletto. Masterpieces of the golden age of Dutch portraiture by Rembrandt and Thomas de Keyser will also hang with the enigmatic surrealism of Rene Magritte and the confronting abstraction of Francis Bacon. This exhibition will undoubtedly have a strong impact on New Zealand audiences.

View the works in the exhibition, or follow this link to the Auckland Art Gallery web site