National Collections

Exchange of Loans between the National Gallery and Tate

In 1996 an exchange of loans between the National and Tate Galleries of more than sixty nineteenth and twentieth-century paintings including works by Degas, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Vuillard, Matisse and Picasso was agreed. The exchange marked an agreement between the two insitutions that the year 1900 should be the principal dividing date between the two national collections of foreign art.

The National Gallery displays Western art until the end of the nineteenth-century, and the Tate Gallery holds the national collections of British and twentieth-century art. The agreement clarified the two galleries' collecting responsibilities: the National Gallery collects and displays nineteenth-century foreign painting, while the Tate collects and displays twentieth-century foreign art.

Major artists whose work straddles the turn of the century continue to be shown to their best advantage across the whole range of their careers by the respective galleries.

www.nationalgallery.org.uk
 

British Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate

An agreement was reached in 1999 between Tate and the V&A whereby works of art will be loaned between the two museums on a regular basis. From 2001 the galleries' holdings of British art will be effectively be regarded as a single resource, equally available to both institutions for display, with loans of up to five years taking place. This agreement coincides with the opening of Tate Britain at Millbank in March 2000 and the new British Galleries due to open at the V&A in 2001.

In 2001, there will be a major exchange of loans between the two museums. Works by Constable will go to the Tate to add strength to Tate Britain's new Constable Galleries. The V&A will also lend the Tate groups of miniatures and sculptures. Meanwhile paintings, including a Hogarth and a Stubbs, from the Tate's holdings will greatly enrich the new British Galleries 1500–1900 which will open at the V&A in 2001.

www.vam.ac.uk