The National Gallery (full official name National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum) is an art museum in the city of Athens. It is one of the most interesting sights of the capital and one of the best museums in Greece.
The National Gallery was established in 1900 and its collection was based on 258 works of art donated by the University of Athens and the National Technical University. A year later, the gallery became the property of another 107 works of art from the collection of Alexandros Soutsos. In 1954, the National Gallery officially merged with the Alexandros Soutsos Museum of Painting, taking its current name as the National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum.
Over time, the gallery's collection grew significantly, also thanks to donations from private collectors, the most significant of which was perhaps the gift of Evripidis Koutlidis in the form of an impressive collection of paintings by Greek artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1976 the gallery established itself in its own purpose-built building at Michalakopoulou,1. In 2004, the National Glyptothek of Greece was established on the initiative of Marina Lambraki-Plaka, the director of the gallery, and became home to the National Gallery's collection of sculpture by Greek artists from the 19th and 21st centuries.
Today, the National Gallery's collection includes over 20,000 works of art from the post-Byzantine period to the present day. Most of the collection is the work of Greek artists, including Yannis Tsarouchis, Spyros Papaloukas, Yannis Moralis, Konstantinos Maleas, Nikolaos Gizis, as well as many other talented masters. However, it is worth noting that the gallery also has a very impressive collection of works by European artists, including works by such renowned artists as El Greco, Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, Ivan Aivazovsky, Jacob Jordaens, Auguste Rodin, Peter Rubens, Albrecht Dürer, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, etc.
In addition to the permanent exhibition, the National Gallery regularly hosts temporary exhibitions, specialised lectures and seminars, as well as various cultural events. The gallery has its own research laboratories and an excellent library with unique archival materials.
