the King’s Gallery

the King’s Gallery, name given to either of two small public art galleries in the United Kingdom that exhibit the Royal Collection. The first gallery, then called the Queen’s Gallery, opened in 1962 at Elizabeth II’s official London residence, Buckingham Palace, in the borough of Westminster. It is on the site of a private chapel destroyed during an air raid in 1940. The second gallery opened in 2002 at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, as part of Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee. It is housed in the shell of the former Holyrood Free Church and Duchess of Gordon’s School. In 2024 both galleries were renamed to the King’s Gallery about a year after the coronation of Charles III. Approximately three art exhibitions are arranged at each gallery annually, in addition to exhibitions held at other venues, both in Britain and abroad.

The Royal Collection has been formed mainly since the time of Charles II in the mid-17th century. It contains an outstanding collection of oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints as well as many items of gold, silver, jewelry, furniture, and other decorative art. Much of it is used to furnish the various palaces, and many pieces are on loan to different national museums.

A review of some of the exhibitions arranged in the galleries gives an indication of the extent and quality of the collection. They have included shows on individual artists such as Michelangelo, Anthony van Dyck, Hans Holbein the Younger, Canaletto, Thomas Gainsborough, and George Stubbs. There have also been exhibitions of Sèvres porcelain and Fabergé decorative works—the latter comprising more than 400 pieces.