Buckingham Palace
9 July to 27 September 2026
Paintings by Rubens, Caravaggio and Zoffany are among 120 masterpieces from the Royal Collection going on display for visitors to Buckingham Palace from Thursday, 9 July, as part of a major re-display in one of the Palace’s most important reception rooms.
The Picture Gallery, one of the State Rooms that open to visitors each summer, has undergone a once-in-a-generation re-display, almost doubling the number of paintings on show from 63 to 120.
The new presentation puts more works by some of the world’s greatest artists on show, bringing together paintings in inspiring and new ways.
Curators have drawn on historic watercolours, photographs, inventories and architectural schemes to devise the new display, which took 875 hours to hang and brings the room closer to its historic appearance. New emerald-green silk wall hangings and updated lighting, together with the increased number of paintings, create a striking visual transformation.
A highlight of the re-display is
The Tribuna of the Uffizi by Johan Zoffany, a German artist active in Britain, which depicts the famed Florentine gallery filled with masterpieces and animated by visitors studying, discussing and enjoying works of art. Although commissioned by Queen Charlotte, the painting was never hung in her apartments, reportedly displeasing its royal patron with its crowded and unconventional composition. It was later recorded in the Picture Gallery in 1841, making its inclusion in the new display particularly fitting.
The painting forms part of a major new addition to the room: a display illustrating the flourishing of British art in the 18th century, reflecting Queen Victoria’s hang in the 1840s. Visitors will also see A Rough Dog by George Stubbs, believed to show George IV's pet dog, and
Thomas Gainsborough’s elegant portrait of Johann Christian Fischer.
Five paintings by Rembrandt and one attributed to his studio are now hung together and demonstrate the breadth of the artist’s work. The re-display also unites seven works by Rubens.
A standout pairing is
Rubens’s Self Portrait, shown alongside his newly added
portrait of Anthony Van Dyck. Displayed facing one another, the hang reflects their friendship in real life (Van Dyck joined Rubens’s studio as a teenager) and recreates history – the two portraits were known to hang together at Whitehall Palace in the 1660s.
George IV’s painting collection was one of the finest holdings of 17th-century Dutch paintings in the world.
Vermeer’s Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman.
A striking work in the new display is
The Letter by Vermeer’s contemporary Gerard ter Borch. This intimate scene of a woman with a letter draws the eye to the sumptuous textures of her silk satin dress, while inviting speculation about whether the message has just been written or received.
The new additions to the room join remaining highlight works including 12 scenes of Venice by Canaletto,
Frans Hals’s charismatic Portrait of a Man and
