Dulwich Picture Gallery

Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, south London, and the oldest public art gallery in England. Opened in 1817 to a design by Regency architect Sir John Soane, it became a landmark in museum architecture through its innovative use of natural light. Originally part of the College of God's Gift, the charitable foundation established by Edward Alleyn in the early 17th century, the gallery became an independent charitable trust in 1994. Its collection, formed through the purchases of its founders and expanded by later bequests, ranks among Britain’s finest holdings of Old Master paintings, especially strong in French, Italian, and Spanish Baroque art and in British portraiture from the Tudor era to the 19th century. The Dulwich Picture Gallery and its mausoleum are listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England. The mausoleum is for founders of the collection, Francis Bourgeois and Noël Desenfans.