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London Velazquez exhibition attracts huge advance sales
2006-10-18
Some 11,000 tickets have already been sold for a new exhibition of work by Spanish painter Diego Velazquez which, on the eve of its opening, promises to be one of London's cultural events of the year. The capital's National Gallery, which is hosting what it says is the first proper retrospective of the 17th century master's work, is expecting at least 300,000 visitors before it closes next January. The size of advance sales for the exhibition are unprecedented in the 182-year history of Britain's best-known art gallery, on Trafalgar Square, and outstrips those of Vermeer, Titian and Caravaggio. It includes 46 paintings, almost half the surviving works by Velazquez, who has influenced painters including Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon. "It's the exhibition which Velazquez deserves," said Gabriele Finaldi, assistant director of the Prado, which loaned eight of its 47 works for the exhibition. Twenty of the works on show will be displayed for the first time in the UK. They come from galleries including the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the Hermitage in St Petersburg, as well as the Prado. However, two of Velazquez's most famous works will not be in London -- "Las Meninas", which dates from 1656 and never leaves the Prado, and "Pope Innocent X", from 1650, which is kept at the Vatican. The show runs from October 18 to January 21. Further information can be found at www.nationalgallery.org.uk.
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