The Queen's Pictures Masterpieces from the Royal Collection

This tour-de-force of Britain’s Royal Collection provides a very rare opportunity to see an art trove not readily accessible to the world at large—most of the paintings are not normally available for public viewing, including several that have never been publicly exhibited since entering the collection.

While it is known that the Crown has one of the world’s great collections of Leonardo’s, visitors to the Royal Academy’s recent Charles I exhibition were amazed by the richness of the Royal Collection and its many unseen works. This extraordinary volume reveals more of the unparalleled collection that is housed in thirteen historic royal residences, from Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, where the Royal Family regularly reside, to spaces specifically devoted to the public display of art, the Queen’s Gallery and Hampton Court Palace.

It comprises more than a million objects, including 7,000 painting and 180,000 watercolors, drawings, and prints. This stunning volume, prepared in collaboration with curators at the Royal Collection, showcases 240 masterpieces in exacting detail, including paintings by Titian, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Caravaggio, Canaletto, Dürer, Cranach, Holbein, Rubens, Rembrandt, van Dyck, Vermeer, Gainsborough, and many others. Also included are treasures from its vast collection of drawings, watercolors, and miniatures.

Anna Poznanskaya is a curator and deputy head of the Gallery of 19th and 20th Century European and American Art [JM1] at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. Tim Knox is director of the Royal Collection.