The Tate Collection, founded in 1897 with a donation of 65 paintings by Henry Tate, is one of Britain’s leading art repositories. It includes nearly 5,000 paintings, over 1,600 sculptures, and 47,600 works on paper. Spread across four locations, the collection rotates regularly across three facilities to give maximum exposure. Tate Modern and Tate Britain are the two London galleries, with the former showcasing modern art from the late 19th century to the present day. Tate Britain houses the most comprehensive collection of British art dating back to the 1500s. The collection’s international modern art rotates between Tate St. Ives, Tate Liverpool, and Tate Modern. The two London Tates are a short drive or long walk from each other, and visitors can start at one and walk to the other through the heart of London.
Founded in 1897, following the donation of 65 paintings by the nearly deceased British sugar magnate Henry Tate, the Tate Collection has become one of Britain’s leading repositories of the country’s most revered works of art, by national and international artists. Spread across four locations in London, St. Ives and Liverpool, the collection rotates his work regularly across three of the facilities to give the majority of citizens maximum exposure. A cavernous former powerhouse, Tate Modern is one of two London galleries, one that explains the world of modern art from the late 19th century to the most important artists still alive in the 19th.
As of 2011, the Tate bequest had grown to include nearly 5,000 paintings, over 1,600 sculptures and a total of 47,600 works on paper. The curators of the collection pride themselves on having the most comprehensive collection of British art, dating back to the 1500s. The latter collection is housed at the other London museum besides the Tate Modern: Tate Britain, located along the Thames. The collection’s collection of international modern art, which dates back to 1900, rotates between Tate St. Ives, Tate Liverpool and Tate Modern in London.
The two London Tates are a short drive or a long walk from each other. Tate Britain is located in the center of Millbank, overlooking the Thames. Still along the Thames, the Tate Modern is just a little further up Stamford Street, along the opposite bank. Many visitors start at one or the other and take a potentially day-long walk to the other museum through the heart of London. Starting with the modern collection and walking towards the British collection, it will start with the past and end with the present. The opposite path, of course, will suffice.
It is likely that Henry Tate had no idea that his original donation would become the central collecting point for the nation’s art collection. According to an official biography on the museum’s website, Tate began making the arrangements some seven years before his death in 1897. The revered National Gallery on The Mall in Trafalgar Square would not agree to donate all 60 of the philanthropist’s paintings, only a small assortment. So Tate made arrangements to build a new gallery if only the government would donate a suitable plot of land downtown. In 1897, two years before his death, Tate Britain opened on the former site of Millbank Prison, controlled by the National Gallery council.
In 2000, the National Gallery council finished refurbishing an old electricity station on nearby Stamford Street in the Tate Modern. Perhaps as a post-modern twist, the station was originally built in the iconic international style of utilitarian-looking architecture, housing a collection that is anything but utilitarian. This has divided London’s Tate collection into one museum presenting the full breadth of British art and the other offering the modern movements, from Warhol to Matisse.
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