Rise follows Bicentenary celebrations and re-opening of Sainsbury Wing
Figures released today by The National Gallery show more than four million people saw a National Gallery painting in person in 2025.
Managers say the increase is partly explained by the 2024 Bicentenary and the newly transformed Sainsbury Wing.
Last summer also was the opening of CC Land: The Wonder of Art. It was the biggest-ever rehang of the Gallery’s collection.
The Bicentenary activities ended in summer 2025 with the Art Road Trip around Britain and Northern Ireland and Jeremy Deller’s nationwide celebration The Triumph of Art.
The latter visited all four nations and culminated in a spectacular one-day outdoor event in Trafalgar Square.
‘The National Gallery continues to build on its founding principles of bringing people and great art together,’ says Sir Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, London.
‘Through our collection, our exhibitions in London and across the UK, many people have engaged with the Gallery. Our digital and social media platforms including online exhibitions and courses have brought us to an even bigger global audience.’
‘Following our NG200 celebrations and our newly transformed Sainsbury Wing we now look forward this year to welcoming more even more visitors to our collection and our exhibitions which include Zurbarán, Renoir and Love and Van Eyck: The Portraits.’
‘Founding principles of bringing people and great art together’
The visits to The National Gallery included 872,662 made to exhibitions, including the recent opening of Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers (the most attended ticketed exhibition in the Gallery’s history).
Visitors have also been enjoying Siena: The Rise of Painting (1300-1350), Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller’s Neo-Impressionists, José María Velasco: A View of Mexico and Wright of Derby: From the Shadows.
Of the 4,147,544 visits to the Gallery, there were 81,299 visits to the new Roden Centre for Creative Learning following its opening in March 2025 – and of these 22,955 facilitated visits were made by school students and teachers.
There were more than 2,500 visits made by students and teachers, alumni and partners to the Gallery and other venues engaged in the annual Articulation Prize.
This is organised by the Gallery for those aged between 16 and 19 who deliver a 10-minute presentation to an audience about a work of art, architecture or an artefact in a museum or gallery setting.
The Gallery’s digital and social media, including video content, online exhibitions, talks and courses, and visits to the website, attracted more than 107 million views (from 1 January to 31 December 2025).
These include 6.9 million engagements across Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok and YouTube; and 14.3 million visits made on the Gallery’s website in 2025.
The second year of the Gallery’s 200 Creators Network launched in October 2025 and, so far, content made by creators in the Network has generated on their own channels more than seven million views and 150,000 engagements.
