World-class art in London

Located in the elegant surroundings of Somerset House, the Courtauld combines temporary exhibitions with a permanent collection including works by Manet and Van Gogh.

Founded in 1856 as a visual hall of fame for the country’s great and good, today the National Portrait Gallery is still a vital part of British culture. The form may be traditional but the collection of 175,000 portraits range from stiff-upper-lipped royals and Victorian politicians to modern-day celebrities and Olympic heroes.

If you’re in London in summer, look out for the gallery’s prestigious BP Portrait Award; otherwise, the rotating exhibitions of portrait photography cover lively themes such as rock’n’roll, fashion and dance.

The hallowed galleries of the National are home to one of the greatest collections of Western European paintings in the world. There are more than 2,300 works on display here.

Step out of the bustle of Trafalgar Square into the palatial building to take a tour of the classics, from the Italian Renaissance to the French Impressionists.

This intriguing, under-the-radar gallery is close to Oxford Circus, its rooms devoted to the best in contemporary photography.

The main public art gallery of Buckingham Palace, the Queens Gallery exhibits works of art from the Royal collection on a rotating basis – there are usually around 450 works on show.

This grand Portland stone building on the Thames, the original Tate Gallery, has lately been eclipsed by its edgier younger sibling, the Tate Modern. This is a pity – the Tate Britain houses an impressive collection of classical and modern British art that’s second only to the National Gallery.

Come here to see evocative landscapes and striking portraits by British greats such as Gainsborough, Freud, Bacon and Constable – who gets an entire room to himself – as well as Turner, whose works number into the thousands.

The gallery is best known for its works by deceased painters, but the always-controversial annual Turner Prize (October to January) is an exhibition of the best contemporary British art of that year – and a highlight of the London art calendar.

Like MoMA in New York or the Pompidou Centre in Paris, London’s Tate Modern is an energetic and uniquely site-specific art space. This former power station beside the Thames houses a permanent and rotating exhibition of contemporary art that gets London talking and walking around its inventive exhibition spaces.

From Damien Hirst to Monet, Rothko to Miro, Lichtenstein to Warhol, the treasures in this 1940s industrial construction are legendary. The main galleries feature a rotating selection of the 60,000-piece permanent collection.

But the big buzz is usually about its colossal Turbine Hall, which hosts temporary, site-specific installations from big names like Louise de Bourgeois, Anish Kapoor and Bruce Nauman.

This prestigious art museum houses an extensive collection of European fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries, fittingly displayed in a historic townhouse in Manchester Square.

The art collection, brought together by the first four marquesses of Hertford, includes masterpieces by renowned artists such as Rembrandt, Velazquez, and Titian.

Provocative and pricey works by modern British artists, displayed in one of London’s best commercial galleries.

Elegant gallery that’s premiered world-class artists for over a century – from modern masters such as Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, to British artists Lucian Freud and Gilbert & George.