Guildhall Art Gallery is home to the City of London Corporation’s works of art. The wide-ranging collection of 4,500 works, including over 1,300 oil paintings, dates from 1670 to the present day. Particularly strong in Victorian material, with a number of choice Pre-Raphaelite items, the collection also houses important ceremonial and topographical paintings. The collection has been built up through commissions, purchases and by generous donations and bequests – particularly the gift of important Victorian paintings that are so popular with our visitors today. As the City’s collection continued to grow, its growing specialisation in London subjects was recognised and codified in 1943. The Gallery continues to acquire works of art, often with the assistance of grant-aid bodies, with the aim of encouraging the present and the future visitor to understand, empathise with and feel part of the story of one of the greatest cities in the world. Notable paintings in the collection include John Singleton Copley’s enormous 'Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782', William Logsdail’s 'The Ninth of November, 1888', and Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s 'La ghirlandata'.