The London gallery has unveiled details of its upcoming exhibition programme.

The National Gallery has announced full details of its upcoming 2023 programme – including exhibitions devoted to  the life and legacy of Saint Francis of Assisi, Dame Paula Rego and Céline Condorelli.

With exhibitions such as Winslow Homer: Force of Nature and The Credit Suisse Exhibition Lucian Freud: New Perspectives on display until January 2023, the gallery’s exhibition programme for 2023 will begin with Nalini Malani: My Reality is Different (2nd March – 11th June). This display will feature new animations including famous paintings in the National Gallery and the Holburne Museum, Bath, have been created by Nalini Malani, the first artist to receive the National Gallery’s Contemporary Fellowship, supported by Art Fund. 

Fast on the heels of this opening, the 16th of March will see The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the Renaissance opening to the public. This exhibition will aim to shed light on one of the most famous paintings in the gallery’s colection – An Old Woman (about 1513) by Quinten Massys. At the centre of the exhibition will be the exceptional reunion of An Old Woman with her male pendant, An Old Man (about 1513), on rare loan from a private collection in New York.Through a small selection of works in a variety of media, the exhibition will examine the ways in which older women were depicted during the Renaissance.

Meanwhile, After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art (25th March – 13th August) will offer visitors a chance to explore revolutionary artistic developments across other European cities during the period between 1886 and around 1914. The exhibition will feature works by artists such as Cézanne, Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, Claudel, Sonia Delaunay and Kollwitz.

From the 6th May, the National Gallery will present an exhibition exploring the life and legacy of Saint Francis of Assisi, presenting the art and imagery of Saint Francis from the 13th century to today and examines how his spiritual radicalism, his commitment to the poor, his love of God and nature, as well as his striving for peace between enemies and openness to dialogue with other religions, make him a figure of enormous relevance to our times. 

More than 30 years after Dame Paula Rego (1935–2022), the National Gallery’s first Associate Artist (1990–92), was commissioned to create a painting for the Sainsbury Wing Dining Room, Paula Rego: Crivelli’s Garden will examine the relationship of Rego’s work titled Crivelli’s Garden to the 15th-century altarpiece that inspired it. 

Finally, the National Gallery will present the first major retrospective of Frans Hals in more than thirty years from the 30th September 2023. This display will bring together fifty of his finest works including The Laughing Cavalier (1624), on loan from the Wallace Collection and introduce him to a new generation of art lovers.

For more information with regards to these exhibitions visit: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/