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Design details: Art for everyone, everywhere....
From its very beginnings, the National Gallery
has successfully endeavoured to make art accessible to all. The
collection, which now features more than 2,300 paintings, began as 38
pictures acquired from the financier John Julius Angerstein by parliament
in April 1824.
Originally hailing from Australia, Edwina Ellis is a designer, engraver
and printmaker who has designed several coins for The Royal Mint,
including a UK 50p coin honouring Stephen Hawking and a set of four Bridge
£1 coins. The artist has skilfully depicted the National Gallery at the
centre of the coin marking its 200th anniversary, with the anniversary
itself framing the building in a semi-circle. The edge inscription reads
‘MAIORVM GLORIA POSTERIS LVMEN EST’, which means ‘The glory of our
ancestors is a light to our descendants’ and is inscribed on the ceiling
above the main staircase in the Wilkins Building of the Gallery. The
phrase conveys the notion that the great artists of the past inspire those
of the future – a founding principle of the National Gallery. |
