For whatever reason, the British did not care much for a national art museum. While the French Revolution founded the Louvre in Paris from the confiscated collections of its aristocrats, and Emperor Catherine I of Russia added a Hermitage wing to her castle, Britain let a sizable collection of art assembled by a businessman slip through their fingers, and passed up another collection of 500 paintings from a French prince. A temporary exhibit space was set up by a British art society, but the works on display were mediocre at best. It took, ironically, a Russian-born emigre banker to set up Britain’s first national gallery.

On this day, April 9 , in 1838,  after a bequeathment of major works by John Julius Angerstein and other collectors renewed calls for a permanent collection and a gallery space to showcase it, the National Gallery of Art opened in London.

This was the first building designated specifically to the display of paintings — between the bequeathment and the opening, Angerstein’s collection was opened to the public in his home on 100 Pall Mal. With most of the art world focused on the high renaissance artwork, the curator of the gallery thought it important to look at the paintings of the 14th century, assembling one of the world’s largest collections of art from that period.