ABSTRACT
The idea of a national gallery of paintings depends on the view that there is something distinctive about paintings which separates them from other man-made objects, however fine. It is a view that is implicit in writings on art from early times, although not always by any means absolute. At any rate such a view existed well before the foundation of the National Gallery in London in 1824. It was embodied in the Louvre, part of which was opened to the public as a national gallery following the Revolution in 1793, as well as in the proposals for a national gallery in London made by the dealer, Noel Desenfans in 1799. The German Romantic poet Wackenroder had written in 1797:
Picture halls … ought to be temples where in subdued and silent humility we may admire the great artists. Works of art, in their essence, fit as little into the common flow of life as the thoughts of God.
