The National Gallery online: Lockdown’s top 20 most viewed paintings

Throughout the current lockdown, the National Gallery has remained open online, continuing to bring great art into the nation’s homes. The digital initiatives are open 24/7, providing access at any time, from anywhere in the world. The programmes explore the various ways people can look at and respond to art from their homes, including experiencing the collection remotely, creative workshops, art talks and films.

The gallery’s online selection takes audiences on a journey spanning over 450 years, from a merchant family’s home in 15^th century Bruges (The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434) to Monet’s garden in 19^th century Giverny (The Water-Lily Pond, 1899). The site is busy with activity, and a “most popular painting” page highlights the works most frequently viewed by culture-thirsty visitors (with figures collected from 19^th March 2020, when the Gallery first locked down, until today). Van Eyck’s jewel-like The Arnolfini Portrait is so far in the lead, followed by Holbein’s The Ambassadors and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Other visitor favourites include works by Turner, Leonardo, Velázquez, Titian, Constable, Botticelli, Monet, Caravaggio and Vermeer. The 20 most viewed pictures are just a fraction of the masterpieces that form the Gallery’s collection of over 2,300 works. 

Dr Gabriele Finaldi, director of the National Gallery, says: “It is revealing that Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait and Holbein’s Ambassadors are the pictures most people have looked for online. Both are indoor scenes with very dressed-up people, and I am wondering whether they reflect our own experience of being enclosed in our homes during lockdown, but yearning to go out and celebrate! Even with the Gallery doors closed all our masterpieces are available online for everyone to enjoy.”

There has been a rise in audience interaction with painting pages overall. These pages provide an in-depth look into the story behind each work with text descriptions and video content. They also allow the viewer to zoom in for a closer look – not unlike the experience of standing in front of a painting in the gallery, leaning in to focus on a particular section or inspecting a certain element in greater detail. Whether revisiting beloved favourites or discovering these masterpieces for the first time, the painting pages help guide the viewer and provide new layers of insight. 

As institutions that engage with both the individual and the community, museums and galleries have an important role to play in times of crisis. Whether online visitors seek out the thrilling rush of Turner’s Rain, Steam and Speed or the still, luminous interior of Vermeer’s A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal, there is little doubt that art can provide solace and reassurance in a challenging historical moment.  

The top 20 most viewed painting pages are:

1. The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434 – Jan van Eyck

2. The Ambassadors, 1533 – Hans Holbein the Younger

3. Sunflowers, 1888 – Vincent van Gogh

4. The Fighting Temeraire, 1839 – Joseph Mallord William Turner

5. The Virgin of the Rocks, about 1491/2-9 and 1506-8 – Leonardo da Vinci

6. Rain, Steam, and Speed, 1844 – Joseph Mallord William Turner 

7. The Rokeby Venus, 1647-51 – Diego Velázquez

8. Surprised!, 1891 – Henri Rosseau 

9. Bacchus and Ariadne, 1520-3 – Titian 

10. The Hay Wain, 1821 – John Constable

11. Venus and Mars, about 1485 – Sandro Botticelli

12. The Water-Lily Pond, 1899 – Claude Monet 

13. Bathers at Asnières, 1884 – Georges Seurat 

14. The Supper at Emmaus, 1601 – Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

15. Marriage a-la-Mode: 1, The Marriage Settlement, about 1743 – William Hogarth 

16. A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal, about 1670-72 – Johannes Vermeer

17. An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, 1768 – Joseph Wright “of Derby”

18. Niccolò Mauruzi da Tolentino at the Battle of San Romano, probably about 1438-40 – Paolo Uccello

19. A Wheatfield, with Cypresses, 1889 – Vincent van Gogh 

20. The Sultan Mehmet II, 1480 – Gentile Bellini

To view the full list of works at the National Gallery visit here.

The editorial unit