Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
Johannes Vermeer · 1650
Scottish National Gallery
Edinburgh · Founded 1859
The Skating Minister gliding across a frozen loch, with Vermeer, Velazquez and Titian a few rooms away. Free, on the Mound between the two halves of Edinburgh, in Playfair’s neoclassical rooms.
- 1.6M
- Visitors a year
- 1859
- Founded
- Free
- Admission
- Daily 10–17
- Daily opening hours
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Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
Johannes Vermeer · 1650
Christ in the House of Martha and Mary is an oil painting finished in 1655 by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. It is now in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. It is the largest painting by Vermeer and one of the very few with an overt religious subject. The story of Christ visiting the household of the two sisters Mary of Bethany and Martha goes back to the New Testament. The work has also been called Christ in the House of Mary and Martha.
The Skating Minister
Henry Raeburn · 1795
The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, better known by its shorter title The Skating Minister, is a late 18th-century oil painting attributed to Henry Raeburn, now in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Because the painting was passed down through the subject's family, it was practically unknown until 1949, but has since become one of Scotland's best-known paintings.
Bust of Carlo Antonio del Pozzo
Gian Lorenzo Bernini · 1622
The Bust of Carlo Antonio del Pozzo is a sculptural portrait by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. It is in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Niagara Falls, from the American Side
Frederic Edwin Church · 1867
Niagara Falls, from the American Side is a painting by the American artist Frederic Edwin Church (1826 to 1900). Completed in 1867, it is based on preliminary sketches made by the artist at Niagara Falls and on a sepia photograph.
A Woman in Bed
Rembrandt · 1647
An Allegory of the Old and New Testaments
Hans Holbein the Younger · 1530
An Allegory of the Old and New Testaments is an allegorical and typological oil on panel painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, painted between 1532 and 1536. In 1981, the painting was acquired by the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.
The collections
At the heart of the National Gallery's collection is a group of paintings transferred from the Royal Scottish Academy. This includes masterpieces by Jacopo Bassano, Van Dyck and Giambattista Tiepolo. The National Gallery did not receive its own purchase grant until 1903. In the Gallery's main ground floor rooms are displayed a number of major large-scale canvases such as Benjamin West's Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag (1786), Rubens's The Feast of Herod (1633 or c.1637-38) and a pair of paintings by Titian, Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto (purchased jointly with the National Gallery, London). The Scottish National Gallery has also jointly acquired one of Canova's sculptures of The Three Graces with the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Artists
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland · 1811–1890
William Bell Scott was a Scottish artist in oils and watercolour and occasionally printmaking. He was also a poet and art teacher, and his posthumously published reminiscences give a chatty and often vivid picture of lif
1835–1910
William McTaggart was a Scottish landscape and marine painter who was influenced by Impressionism.
Kingdom of Great Britain · 1775–1851
Joseph Mallord William Turner, known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter and elevated the status of landscape painting.
Kingdom of Great Britain · 1713–1784
Allan Ramsay was a Scottish painter who specialised in portrait painting.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland · 1756–1823
Sir Henry Raeburn was a Scottish portrait painter. He served as Portrait Painter to King George IV in Scotland.
Artworks
Peasants Playing Bowls
David Teniers the Younger · 1635
The Artist's Wife: Margaret Lindsay of Evelick
Allan Ramsay · 1759
Oban
James Guthrie · 1893
Study of Two Figures in Adoration (possibly Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary, or Saints Joachim and Anna)
Carlo Carlone
Seven Illustrations to Burns' Poems
Thomas Stothard · 1803
A View in a Wood
David Octavius Hill · 1847
L'heureuse famille (The Happy Family)
Jacques Sablet · 1793
Saint Anthony Abbot reviving a Dead Man
Andrea Sacchi · 1635
Caroline D'Arcy, 4th Marchioness of Lothian (died 1778)
Joseph Antony Adolph · 1750
Plan your visit
Hours
Open daily, 10am to 5pm. Confirm on www.nationalgalleries.org/visit/scottish-national-gallery before you travel.
Admission
Free admission, with charges for some exhibitions.
Getting there
Belford Road.
On their own site
Opening hours, tickets and current exhibitions are on the museum’s own site.
More guides to explore
Invite Scottish National Gallery into your living room
100 works from this collection are available on Momentable, free to view, on your TV, phone, or tablet.
