Viewing at Dulwich Picture Gallery

This watercolour displays the early 19th century hang of the gallery, the viewpoint is taken from Gallery V towards the former entrance in Gallery I. It documents how paintings such as Van Dyck’s Samson and Delilah (DPG127) and Titian’s workshop’s Venus and Adonis (DPG209) were hung in Gallery IV in a very dense cluster along a central line in the 1830s, reminiscent of the hanging practices at the Royal Academy. The watercolour also serves as evidence of how some of the paintings have changed over the past 180 years. To the left Veronese’s Saint Jerome and a Donor (DPG270) can be seen, before restoration uncovered Saint Michael’s hand holding a balance and the lion at Saint Jerome’s feet.