Dr. Charles Robert Saumarez Smith (born 1954) is an art historian and museum director. For four years he worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as head of research before becoming director of the National Portrait Gallery in 1994. There he more than doubled visitor figures by staging exhibitions by contemporary artists, including Mario Testino. He also presided over the building of an extension to the Gallery in 2000, the Ondaatje Wing. Since 2002 he has been director of the National Gallery. 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Art history usually refers to the history of the visual arts. ... The Cromwell Road entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A) is on Cromwell Road in Kensington, West London. ... St Stevens Tower - The Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster which contains Big Ben London (see also alternative names) is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in central London which was opened in 1856. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The National Gallery from Trafalgar Square The National Gallery is an art gallery in London, located on the north side of Trafalgar Square. ...
Despite having been founded without an existing royal collection on which to build, and housed in buildings often deemed inadequate for their purpose, the National Gallery has grown to be a collection of international renown since its foundation in 1824.
It was shaped mainly by its early directors, including Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which comprise two thirds of the collection.
Building on the site had been delayed after Prince Charles infamously denounced a still evolving design for a modernist extension to the gallery by the architects Ahrends, Burton and Koralek as "a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend".
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