Christ Church Picture Gallery will be closed for a period of renovation and extension of the Grade II listed building from 30 April 2026.

These essential works will create a world-class facility designed to preserve and enhance public and scholarly access to one of the world’s finest ‘small’ Old Master collections.

A visitor viewing paintings from the collection

Our collections

The internationally renowned drawings collection in the Picture Gallery at Christ Church is regarded as one of the most important private collections of Old Master drawings in the country and includes work by the masters Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dürer, Raphael and Rubens. 

Other works in the collection include paintings by artists such as Filippino Lippi, Tintoretto, Veronese, Annibale Carracci and Salvator Rosa. Additionally, there are also remarkable works by northern painters such as Anthony van Dyck, Frans Hals and Hugo van der Goes.

Find out more about the drawings and paintings in our collections

About the gallery

The collections

The gallery holds an important collection of nearly 300 Old Master paintings and 2,000 drawings.

The collection is particularly strong in Italian art from the 14th to 18th centuries, with works by artists including Annibale Carracci, Fra Angelico, Salvator Rosa and Paolo Veronese. The gallery has a range of works by other notable European painters, drawings by Raphael, Albrecht Dürer, and Michelangelo along with a collection of Russian icons and English glass from bequests in the 20th century.

Find out more about the Picture Gallery