The King's Gallery, previously known as the Queen's Gallery. is an art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland. It forms part of the Palace of Holyroodhouse complex. It was opened in 2002 by Queen Elizabeth II, and exhibits works from the Royal Collection. [1]
It is open to the public daily. The building is Category B listed. [2]
The King's Gallery is housed primarily in a Gothic building that was originally built between 1846 and 1850 as Holyrood Free Church, a parish church of the Free Church of Scotland then, from 1900, of the United Free Church of Scotland). [2] The church was last used for worship in 1915, when it became a redundant church. Prior to its conversion to a gallery, the church building was used as a storeroom. [3] [2] The Gallery also comprises the neo-Jacobean building that housed the former Free Church School, which was built at the same time as the church. The building of the church and the school was funded by Elizabeth Gordon, Duchess of Gordon, who was an early supporter of the Free Church. [4] The former school was converted into accommodation for the palace's chauffeurs in the 1920s. In 2002, the buildings were converted to form what is now the King's Gallery under plans by Benjamin Tindall Architects. [2] The gallery is primarily housed on the first floor in a large space with an open timber roof. [2]
In 2019, the former Scottish National Party MP George Kerevan claimed that, if Scotland gained Independence, the gallery building would be demolished to create an uninterrupted "Freedom square" between Holyrood Palace and the Scottish Parliament Building. [5]
The gallery houses temporary exhibitions throughout the year which are drawn from the Royal Collection. Past exhibitions have included:
The National is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by William Henry Playfair, and first opened to the public in 1859.
Holyrood Abbey is a ruined abbey of the Canons Regular in Edinburgh, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1128 by David I of Scotland. During the 15th century, the abbey guesthouse was developed into a royal residence, and after the Scottish Reformation the Palace of Holyroodhouse was expanded further. The abbey church was used as a parish church until the 17th century, and has been ruined since the 18th century. The remaining walls of the abbey lie adjacent to the palace, at the eastern end of Edinburgh's Royal Mile. The site of the abbey is protected as a scheduled monument.
The Royal Mile is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century (1901), describing the city "with its Castle and Palace and the royal mile between", and was further popularised as the title of a guidebook by R. T. Skinner published in 1920, "The Royal Mile (Edinburgh) Castle to Holyrood(house)".
Holyrood may refer to:
Holyrood Park is a royal park in central Edinburgh, Scotland about 1 mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. It is open to the public. It has an array of hills, lochs, glens, ridges, basalt cliffs, and patches of gorse, providing a wild piece of highland landscape within its 650-acre (260 ha) area. The park is associated with the Palace of Holyroodhouse and was formerly a royal hunting estate. The park was created in 1541 when James V had the ground "circulit about Arthurs Sett, Salisborie and Duddingston craggis" enclosed by a stone wall.
The King's Gallery, previously known as the Queen's Gallery, is a public art gallery at Buckingham Palace, the official residence of the British monarch, in London. First opened to the public in the reign of Elizabeth II in 1962, it exhibits works of art from the Royal Collection on a rotating basis. Enlarged in the early 21st century, the gallery has its own separate public access entrance built in a 'new' classical style and typically displays about 450 works, mainly paintings and drawings.
The High Constables of Holyroodhouse are a small corps of ceremonial bodyguards at the Sovereign's official residence in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. Created in the early sixteenth century to protect the Monarch in residence at Holyrood, as well as to guard the Palace and Abbey, and enforce law and order within the precincts of the Palace and the Holyrood Abbey Sanctuary.
The Madonna of the Yarnwinder is a subject depicted by Leonardo da Vinci in at least one, and perhaps two paintings begun in 1499 or later. Leonardo was recorded as being at work on one such picture in Florence in 1501 for Florimond Robertet, a secretary to King Louis XII of France. This may have been delivered to the French court in 1507, though scholars are divided on this point. The subject is known today from several versions of which two, called the Buccleuch Madonna and the Lansdowne Madonna, are thought to be partly by Leonardo's hand. The underdrawings of both paintings show similar experimental changes made to the composition, suggesting that both evolved concurrently in Leonardo's workshop.
Abbeyhill is an area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.
The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town.
Holyrood is an area in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, lying east of the city centre, at the foot of the Royal Mile.
The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world.
The Palace of Holyroodhouse, commonly referred to as Holyrood Palace or Holyroodhouse, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyroodhouse has served as the principal royal residence in Scotland since the 16th century, and is a setting for state occasions and official entertaining.
Meadowbank Parish Church is a congregation of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is based in a late-Victorian church building on London Road, Abbeyhill, around 0.5 miles (0.80 km) north of Holyrood Abbey. The church building was opened in December 1900 as Abbeyhill United Free Church.
Jacob Jacobsz de Wet II, also known as James de Witt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter known for a series of 110 portraits of Scottish monarchs, many of them mythical, produced for the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh during the reign of Charles II.
The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel is an oil on canvas painting of the Holyrood Abbey completed around 1824 by the French artist Louis Daguerre. The painting measures 211 × 256.3 cm (83.1 × 100.9 in), and is exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, England. The museum acquired it in 1864.
Carl Randall is a British figurative painter, whose work is based on images of modern Japan and London.
Hugh Buchanan is a Scottish watercolour painter, renowned for his detailed draughtsmanship and treatment of light and shadows in interiors, and for a sense of depth and space that is reminiscent of the work of Cotman and Piranesi.
Charles Harris is a British painter, art instructor and teacher.