SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The de Young announces Botticelli to Braque: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland, a selection of paintings from Scotland’s premier art collections.

The 55 paintings in the exhibition span a period of more than 400 years (1490–1932) and include some of the greatest holdings of the Scottish National Gallery, Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art—the three institutions that comprise the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh. Ten paintings in the exhibition, all from the Scottish National Gallery, were first presented at the Frick Collection in New York City as Masterpieces from the Scottish National Gallery, went view there from November 5, 2014, through February 1, 2015.

“The National Galleries of Scotland are delighted to be able to showcase key works from the Scottish national collection at three of the pre-eminent art museums in the USA,” said Sir John Leighton, director-general of the National Galleries of Scotland. “We hope that visitors to the exhibitions will be enchanted by the range of superb works on show, and we encourage them to visit Scotland and see the rest of the collection at the three sites in Edinburgh.”

The paintings from the Scottish National Gallery include many of the major schools of art including—Italian, French and Dutch, in addition to Scottish. Many of these works have never been seen in the United States, including Sandro Botticelli’s Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child (ca. 1490), which has not been exhibited outside of Scotland for more than 150 years. Other artists include the Renaissance masters Titian and Paolo Veronese; the 17th century painters El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Sir Anthony van Dyck, Frans Hals, Jan Lievens, Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer; and such 19th century figures as Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, John Singer Sargent, Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne. The exhibition also features celebrated Scottish painters Allan Ramsay and Sir Henry Raeburn.

Additional pieces from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery include canvases by Van Dyck, William Dobson, Sir David Wilkie and Richard Dadd. From the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art come key paintings by Édouard Vuillard, Pablo Picasso, André Derain, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse and Max Ernst. A particular highlight of the exhibition is Georges Braque’s Candlestick (1911), among the first Cubist paintings to incorporate the written word.

“Both the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Kimbell Art Museum have a long tradition of presenting works from acclaimed museums not readily accessible to our publics,” said Colin B. Bailey, director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “Botticelli to Braque is a remarkable opportunity to view a group of masterpieces from three venerable institutions that together include outstanding examples by some of the greatest painters from the Renaissance to the early modern period.”