A ray of weak winter sunlight breaks through the cloud and shines into the office of the Director of the National Gallery. The figure of Nelson, looming on his column outside in Trafalgar Square, is thrown suddenly into silhouette. So too is the gangly, saturnine figure of Nicholas Penny, who has been galvanised into action by this apparently slight meteorological development. He gets up to draw a curtain. “We should be grateful for all the sunshine we get at this time of year,” he says, “but I am just worried about these prints hanging on the wall. Direct sunlight’s not very good for them.”
Having cast the engravings in question into a sufficient pool of shadow, he settles down to discuss his broader responsibilities of care to one of the world’s greatest museums of painting. What is his vision of the National Gallery’s future? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Where should the balance lie, between improving the display of the permanent collections and focussing on temporary exhibitions? And last but not least, the £50 million question: Given the immense rise in the value of Old Master paintings, can institutions like the National Gallery and National Galleries of Scotland possibly hope to repeat the extraordinary fund-raising drive that led to the purchase of Titian’s Diana and Actaeon at the start of the year?
Despite having played a pivotal role in securing the acquisition of that painting – “one of the greatest paintings in the whole world, full stop” – Penny insists that his first priority is making the most of what the National Gallery already has:
“I would attach as much importance to how things are displayed, and thought about, as to acquisitions. I want to re-establish that great paintings are things you revisit in the same sense that a...
