This guided podcast tour brings to life, the top ten, must-see paintings in the National Gallery, London, England.

Perfect for visitors who want to maximise the time they have available in the National Gallery, by focusing on the most important artworks. The guided tour itself lasts for around 70 minutes, although it is suggested that you allow around two hours to include time for walking in between the paintings described and to look at other artworks on display. 

For a free taster of this National Gallery, London podcast or to find a longer tour, as well as tours of other galleries, museums and places, please follow Painting Stories on Apple or Spotify Podcasts.

Each 'painting story' lasts for 6 to 7 minutes and is thoroughly researched and engagingly presented by Janet, an art historian with degrees from The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and decades of experience of speaking to audiences in world-class galleries and museums.

You will learn about art and European history through the stories of paintings from the Italian Renaissance, the Spanish Inquisition, the Tudors, England nineteenth century, French Impressionism and, most famous of all, Vincent Van Gogh's The Sunflowers.

The artworks covered by the tour including (at the times in the podcast shown below):

Leonardo da Vinci       Virgin of the Rocks, 1490/91-1506/8           Room 9           03:43

Titian                           Bacchus & Ariadne, 1520                               Room 10         09:49   

Hans Holbein              The Ambassadors, 1533                                  Room 12         16:24

Jan van Eyck                The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434                            Room 28         22:59

Diego Velazquez         The Rokeby Venus, c.1647-51                         Room 30         29:47

John Constable           The Haywain, 1821                                          Room 34         36:19

Turner                         The Fighting Temeraire, 1839                          Room 34         42:30

Claude Monet             The Water-Lily Pond, 1899                             Room 41         49:00

Georges Seurat           Bathers at Asniere, 1884                                 Room 43         55:37

Vincent van Gogh       The Sunflowers, 1888                                     Room 43         1:02:04

Music: George Frideric Handel, Water Music, Suite in F major (HWV 348), 1717.

If you enjoy this podcast art tour, please do leave me a review. 

Guidance is given within the podcast, to help listeners find the artworks discussed. However, the podcast host is not responsible for the accuracy of this guidance, nor any changes to the location, gallery closures or removal of the artworks.

Navigating the National Gallery can be difficult, so please do download and print a floor plan here: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/floorplans/level-2.

You may want to use this podcast to do a virtual tour of the National Gallery, using the paintings that you can find online here: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/search-the-collection.

The podcast has not been made in association with the National Gallery. All content of this podcast is owned by the host of the Painting Stories podcast.