A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools Including by Special Permission Notes Collected from the Works of John Ruskin

This compact handbook walks listeners through the National Gallery’s foreign schools, offering a room‑by‑room tour that mirrors a visit to the museum itself. It begins with practical details—opening days, free admission times, and how to become a student—so you can picture yourself strolling the halls of Trafalgar Square. Interwoven with John Ruskin’s passionate preface, the guide frames each painting as a living manuscript waiting to be read.

The core of the volume is a series of concise yet richly illustrated essays on the major European schools, from early Florentine masters to the later Dutch and Spanish painters. Accompanied with a numerical catalogue, biographical notes, and indexes of artists and works, the text lets you compare styles, trace influences, and imagine the stories behind each canvas. Listeners will come away with a clearer sense of how these masterpieces converse across centuries, even without setting foot in the gallery.