Dulwich Picture Gallery. Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London.
The gallery, designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane using an innovative and influential method of illumination, opened to the public in 1817. It is the oldest public art gallery in England and was made an independent charitable trust in 1994.
Until this time the gallery was part of Alleyn's College of God's Gift, a charitable foundation established by the actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist Edward Alleyn in the early-17th century. The acquisition of artworks by its founders and bequests from its many patrons resulted in Dulwich Picture Gallery housing one of the country's finest collections of Old Masters, especially rich in French, Italian and Spanish Baroque paintings and in British portraits from Tudor times to the 19th century.
The Dulwich Picture Gallery and its mausoleum are listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England. Edward Alleyn was an actor who became an entrepreneur in Elizabethan theatre.
His commercial interests in the Rose and Fortune Theatres, gave him sufficient wealth to acquire the Manor of Dulwich in 1605. He founded a college at Dulwich, the College of God's Gift, and endowed it with his estate. It was a school for boys and next to it were almshouses for the local poor. The college became three separate beneficiary schools-Dulwich College, Alleyn's School, and James
The gallery, designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane using an innovative and influential method of illumination, opened to the public in 1817. It is the oldest public art gallery in England and was made an independent charitable trust in 1994.
Until this time the gallery was part of Alleyn's College of God's Gift, a charitable foundation established by the actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist Edward Alleyn in the early-17th century. The acquisition of artworks by its founders and bequests from its many patrons resulted in Dulwich Picture Gallery housing one of the country's finest collections of Old Masters, especially rich in French, Italian and Spanish Baroque paintings and in British portraits from Tudor times to the 19th century.
The Dulwich Picture Gallery and its mausoleum are listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England. Edward Alleyn was an actor who became an entrepreneur in Elizabethan theatre.
His commercial interests in the Rose and Fortune Theatres, gave him sufficient wealth to acquire the Manor of Dulwich in 1605. He founded a college at Dulwich, the College of God's Gift, and endowed it with his estate. It was a school for boys and next to it were almshouses for the local poor. The college became three separate beneficiary schools-Dulwich College, Alleyn's School, and James
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