LONDON, ENGLAND.- The National Gallery has always enjoyed generous private patronage. This exhibition will celebrate Ludwig Mond (1840-1909), one of its most important benefactors, and highlight the contribution of private bequests to public art collections.

After studying chemistry and working in Germany, Mond moved to England in 1862 and became one of the foremost industrial chemists of his time. In the early 1880s Mond enlisted German art historian, Jean Paul Richter, to build him an art collection. Over the following twenty years Richter succeeded in discovering many early Italian pictures – often nameless, or with their value obscured by repainting and restoration – to form a collection that, according to the most eminent art critics, ranked amongst the world’s finest. On his death, Mond conferred 42 paintings to the National Gallery, one of the largest bequests it has ever received. This exhibition will feature eight highlights from the Mond Bequest, including Raphael’s Crucified Christ with the Virgin Mary, Saints and Angels (The Mond Crucifixion), Bellini’s Dead Christ supported by Angels, Titian’s late Virgin and Child and Mantegna’s Holy Family with Saint John.