The National Gallery in Wartime

On Wednesday 23rd August 1939, the National Gallery closed its doors to the public, not knowing when they would open again.

    The paintings were to be secretly evacuated in a relocation that took only ten days.

    The last shipment left Trafalgar Square on 2nd September, the day before World War II was declared.

    At first the majority of the collection was stored in a number of private houses and public buildings, predominantly in Wales. However, by May 1940 – as the conflict progressed and the risk of bombing in Wales increased – it was felt that the paintings were no longer safe, and they were dispersed further.

    The Trustees briefly considered transporting the entire collection to Canada, but Churchill immediately vetoed the plan stating,
‘hide them in cellars or caves, but not one picture shall leave this island'.

    The paintings were eventually stored in Manod Quarry, a slate mine covered by 200 feet of solid rock in the mountains above the village of Ffestiniog.

    Meanwhile back in London, the Gallery remained ‘open for business'.

    Thousands of visitors flocked to the Gallery for the lunchtime concerts organised by Myra Hess, and temporary exhibitions took the place of the permanent collection now safely stored in its subterranean home.

    Despite intensive damage to the building during the Blitz, the Gallery continued to offer entertainment and culture to Londoners even as invasion threatened.

    This book and the accompanying DVD tell the story of the National Gallery's war for the first time.

    To download and view extracts from the book and DVD please visit our National Gallery in Wartime microsite www.nationalgallery.co.uk/wartime

    The book contains extensive sumptuously reproduced archive photographs, many of which are published here for the first time, alongside detailed information, anecdotes, press reports and Gallery correspondence, providing the basis for a story that captures the public's relationship with the collection in the dark days of the war.

    The DVD includes archival footage of the Blitz, the Myra Hess concerts, the move of the paintings to Wales and their return at the end of the war; historical and present-day interviews with the people who witnessed these event first-hand together with the music and ambience of the time.