Dulwich Picture Gallery

Dulwich Picture Gallery opened in 1811 and was the world's first purpose-built public art gallery, designed by Sir John Soane, to House a collection formerly at Dulwich College.

The bulk of the collection was assembled by two London-based art dealers on a commission from the King of Poland, but the King's abdication in 1795 and their failure to find another buyer resulted in this astonishing collection of Old Masters being bequeathed to Dulwich College instead.

Visitors can now enjoy an astonishing collection of Old Masters from the 17th and 18th Centuries set in the perfection of Soane's gallery: his deceptively sophisticated yet simple design became the model for galleries around the world since. Curation is simple and clear, and audio guides are also available.

It's worth a couple of hours of anyone's time and has an excellent cafe and a small shop.

The nearest railway station is West Dulwich: it's a 10 minute walk through Belair Park and along Gallery Road.

This is actually a review for the complex where the museum is located, since the museum was closing very shortly after we arrived (subsequent to visiting the lovely Dulwich Park, as per my previous review). We visited the gift shop, the interior of the (small) church and the cafe. So:
#1 - The gift shop: Although it's rather small, it had a nice selection of items and especially beautifully-illustrated childrens' books. I bought a pretty bracelet and a lovely book about Dulwich Village.
#2 - The church: It's several hundred years old and beautifully-preserved. We also went out into the courtyard, which was pretty - and we had a nice conversation with the very friendly volunteer who was at the church.
#3 - The cafe: It's fairly large - and the exterior is all glass, which provides a nice view. We got scones (delicious) - and since the cafe was soon closing and we were the last customers, we had a great conversation with the guy working behind the counter.

Charming and intimate picture gallery with wide collection of 17th and 18th century masters. Surrounded by a lovely park where you can relax prior of after the visit. It's also a fantastic place to grab a lunch as the restaurant attached to the gallery serves absolutely delicious food.
All in all it's a place where you can spend a very decadent afternoon.

I was pleasantly surprised by this gallery. They have some amazing works housed in a wonderful building, it makes for a lovely afternoon out and a great alternative to the city galleries which are often overpopulated at the weekends and during exhibitions by more prominent artists.

Here we still got to see some wonderful works by the likes of Thomas Gainsborough and Flemish artists Rubens and Van Dyck at your own pace in the permanent collection. It feels rather like someone's home, with rambling rooms and pictures displayed along warm painted walls, one above the other.

I came here for a particular exhibition that is showing until 15 February 2009: Saul Steinberg's Illuminations (he did the famous New Yorker cover drawing of the world seen from 9th Avenue), very inspiring work indeed. The shop has some lovely gifts for the art lover.

DPG is the biggest little gallery I've ever encountered.

Recently, I took my mother down to lovely Dulwich in order to get a gander at the portrait gallery. It certainly didn't hurt that we went on the day of the flotilla, and seemed to be two of, maybe, a handful of museum-goers. It was one of the few times in a museum that I could actually stand and observe unmolested a portrait of my choosing. -no jockeying for position, no standing on tippy-toes. That all was joyous enough. The best part, however, was being around for the 3pm tour given by a most knowledgeable and enthusiastic docent, Mireille. From her our little group learned of the museum's inception, the interesting origins of its permanent collection, and the differences between art produced in 16th and 17th centuries in Southern Europe and 17th Netherlandish art. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I don't know much about art but I know what I like. The Dulwich Picture gallery is running an MC Escher exhibit (October 2015 - January 2016) and I'm a big fan of his work so made the trip. We had booked an allotted time due to the popularity of the exhibit but it was still to busy for my liking. All of his major pieces were there including Another World and the never ending stair cases pieces, I was also impressed with his self portraits.

The rest gallery has some interesting pieces but not being an art buff I wasn't really interested after looking at the visiting exhibition. The gift shop was good and we happily spent £10 on an Escher print. The Dulwich Gallery is a good place to visit though as it is in leafy Dulwich and it is a little calmer than the central London competition.

This was once a huge 18th century house but is now a very well known, yet small art gallery.

If you Art like galleries then you will love the small but brilliant one in Dulwich, it's in a beautiful surroundings. I actually didn't plan on visiting, I hadn't even heard of it before, but one morning I drove past it and thought to stop off as it just looked luminous. It cost me £4 to get in and saw that it was free on Fridays, it was a shame it wasn't a Friday damn it!

It has some amazing works by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens, Poussin, and Gainsborough, among others. And if you fancy a coffee, Picture Gallery Café on the Landscape will serve you a coffee and you can choose from a selection of deserts.

I like Art and studied it at University so I definitely enjoyed it, but if Art is not your thing, I would say visit the Gallery Café, it is really nice but not that good.

A small gallery in pretty surroundings. The building itself is lovely and the collection is interesting, if not extensive. The Ravilious exhibition that was on when we visited was not my cup of tea but I still think it's good to have exhibitions that are a bit off the well-trodden path. Although I picked up a kid's activity pack (hey, young at heart) and I think it would have been pretty confusing and not very helpful for a child!

They recently put up a fake commissioned from China in the gallery and had people try to spot it. I enjoyed reading about this and it makes me think it's worth signing up to their newsletter to catch fun things like this.

The cafe was a tad disappointing. We sat outside in the attractive garden, which was pleasant, but the cakes themselves were a bit meh.

Built as a museum, I think, not a private house.

Wonderful collection of art, lovely grounds with eating area, and a delightful park across the street to roam in.

A bit out of the way, but you can get there from Central London by public bus.

Ahoy!

A recent sojourn to Dulwich brought us to the well known Picture Gallery and as this was my first visit I was quite looking forward to it. A quick spot of lunch in their cafe got us off to a very average start. I was a little underwhelmed with the 'Beef and ale sausages in caramelised red onion gravy with bubble and squeak' (Bangers and Mash to most of us). Can't remember what the missus had but she enjoyed hers more than I did mine and at about £8 - £10 for a main meal on the lunch menu it's certainly not cheap but perhaps average for a gallery.

So, on in to the gallery and ever closer to my main motivation for going there - the temporary exhibit of Salvatore Rosa. Knowing I loved his stuff anyway was cause for some excitement inside me but seeing a load of his stuff all together in one gallery was just amazing! That particular exhibit finished at the end of November so, I'm afraid, you missed a treat. Unless you did go and see it, if so, wasn't it good?

As for the rest of the gallery, which isn't particularly large, there are numerous well known European (and British) artists' works on show but nothing from the past 100 years or so, it's slightly older stuff, largely 17th and 18th century. Some of which I liked and took time to consider but on the whole there wasn't a great deal from the permanent galleries that I found greatly interesting. Everybody's different but I managed to see the rest of the gallery reasonably quickly despite hoping to find some really appealing art.

Just about every galleries' gift shops are usually pretty good and this one in Dulwich is no different, I happily spent about £16 without being determined to find something to bring home with me.

The building itself along with the gardens are quite picturesque and beautiful and are worth seeing. My advice would be to wait until there is a particular temporary exhibition on show that interests you and then visit as Dulwich is not necessarily an easy place to get to and I don't think it's the most interesting gallery either.

Ian.