Description of the attraction
The South African National Gallery is located in Cape Town. Most of the collection is the art of Holland, France and Britain of the 17th - 19th centuries. The collection includes lithographs, etchings and early paintings by British artists of the 20th century. The gallery also displays contemporary South African art with paintings, sculptures and bead jewelry.
At a meeting at the Cape Town Public Library, convened on October 12, 1850, it was proposed for the first time to create a gallery to display art objects. This was the first meeting of the South African Fine Arts Association, founded by Thomas Butterworth Bailey and Abraham de Schmidt. The Fine Arts Association of South Africa is the organizer of the first ever exhibition of its kind in South Africa. Its main task was to find permanent premises for the National Gallery.
The South African National Gallery was founded in 1872 and its first exhibits were paintings bequeathed from the estate of Thomas Butterworth Bailey. In 1875, the Fine Arts Association of South Africa was able to buy premises at Victoria Street, where major works were exhibited. The building, which now houses the National Gallery, was built in stages from the beginning of 1900, and only on November 3, 1930, it officially opened its doors.
Notable contributions to the formation of the gallery's unique collection were made by Alfred de Pass, Sir Abe Bailey, Lady Michaelis, Sir Edmund and Lady Davis. In 1937, the building was expanded to include works by South African artists. The first paintings for this part of the collection were purchased in 1926 from South African artists Anton van Vauve and Neville Lewis.
In the halls of the gallery, exhibits from the main funds of the gallery are regularly changed in order to show as many paintings, photographs, sculptures, beads and textiles as possible. It also hosts temporary exhibitions showing contemporary art.
