Manchester Art Gallery

The building that links them was designed by Hopkins Architects following an architectural design competition managed by RIBA Competitions. It opened in 2002 following a major renovation and expansion project undertaken by the art gallery. Free to enter and open six days a week, closed Mondays. It houses many works of local and international significance and has a collection of more than 25,000 objects. More than half a million people visited the museum in the period of a year, according to figures released in April 2014.

The Royal Manchester Institution was a scholarly society formed in 1823. It was housed in what is now the art gallery's main gallery building on Mosley Street. The first object acquired for its collection, James Northcote's A Moor (a portrait of the celebrated black actor Ira Aldridge), was bought in 1827. The Royal Manchester Institution opened its galleries to the public 10 years after its formation and subsequently held regular art exhibitions, collected works of fine art and promoted the arts from the 1820s until 1882 when its premises and collections were transferred under Act of Parliament to Manchester Corporation, becoming Manchester Art Gallery. The institution was handed over on condition that £2,000 per annum would be spent on art for the next 20 years. The Art Gallery Committee bought enthusiastically and by the end of the 19th century had accrued an impressive collection of fine art, added to by gifts and bequests from wealthy Mancunian industrialists. On 3 April 1913, three women (Lillian Williamson, Evelyn Manesta, and Annie Briggs) staged a protest in favour of women's suffrage in the United Kingdom. They broke the glass of 13 paintings including two by John Everett Millais and two by George Frederick Watts. Four of the paintings were damaged by the broken glass. Williamson was sent to jail for three months and Manesta for one.

The gallery is operated by Manchester City Galleries, a department of Manchester City Council which is also responsible for Platt Hall, Fallowfield. The gallery's budget is controlled by the council but it also funded by the Manchester Art Gallery Trust, a charity (Registered Charity Number 1048581) that supports its work. The trust raises nearly half the funding required from companies, individuals and grant making trusts and foundations. The gallery is open daily, with a late-night opening until 9pm held every other month on a Wednesday.

Manchester Art Gallery is housed in three connected buildings. The City Art Gallery building, which faces onto Mosley Street, was designed and constructed between 1824 and 1835. It originally housed the Royal Manchester Institution. Designed by architect Sir Charles Barry in the Greek Ionic style, the building is now Grade I listed. The two-storey gallery is built in rusticated ashlar to a rectangular plan on a raised plinth. The roof is hidden by a continuous dentilled cornice and plain parapet. Its 11-bay façade has two three-bay side ranges and a central five-bay pedimented projecting portico with six Ionic columns. Set back behind the parapet is an attic with small windows that forms a lantern above the entrance hall. Manchester Athenaeum, also designed by Barry, was built in 1837 and was bought by the Manchester Corporation in 1938 to provide additional space. It is Grade II* listed and designed in the Italian Palazzo style. The Athenaeum fronts onto Princess Street. In November 1994, an architectural design competition managed by RIBA Competitions was launched to refurbish the existing historic gallery and the Athenaeum and link them with a new building on the car park site. The competition attracted 132 architects, six of whom were selected to proceed to the final stage. Michael Hopkins and Partners were announced as winners in January 1995. The gallery closed in 1998 and reopened in 2002 following the £35 million refurbishment and extension. The new extension was criticised as "the splendid and really beautiful interiors of the original building.. have been gratuitously spoiled", and was the 2002 winner of the Sir Hugh Casson Award for the worst new building of the year.

2013: Raqib Shaw 2014: Joana Vasconcelos 2015: Matthew Darbyshire 2016: Boris Nzebo, Jai Redman 2017: Shirley Baker, Waqas Khan, Neha Choksi, Risham Syed, Hetain Patel, Mehreen Murtaza 2018: Sylvia Pankhurst, Annie Swynnerton, Kate Haywood, Sonia Boyce, Martin Parr 2019: Leonardo da Vinci, Halima Cassell, Louise Giovanelli 2021: Suzanne Lacy

Backhuysen, Ludolf – 1 painting; Borch, Gerard ter – 2 paintings; Brekelenkam, Quirijn van – 2 paintings; Jan van de Cappelle – 3 paintings; Cuyp, Aelbert – 2 paintings; Dou, Gerrit – 1 painting; Heem, Jan Janszoon de – 1 painting; Hobbema, Meyndert – 1 painting; Hooch, Pieter de – 2 paintings; Ochtervelt, Jacob – 2 paintings; Ostade, Adriaen van – 1 painting; Ruysdael, Salomon van – 2 paintings; Snyders, Frans – 1 painting; Sorgh, Hendrik Martenszoon – 2 paintings; Steen, Jan – 1 painting; Velde, Adriaen van de – 1 painting; Velde the Younger, Willem van de – 2 paintings;

Beechey, William – 2 paintings; Burra, Edward – 1 painting; Constable, John – 1 painting; Gainsborough, Thomas – 10 paintings; Hogarth, William – 2 paintings; Kneller, Sir Godfrey – 1 paintings; Landseer, Sir Edwin – 3 paintings; Lawrence, Thomas – 1 painting; Lely, Peter – 1 painting; Lowry, L. S. – 4 paintings; Nevinson, C. R. W. – 1 painting; Reynolds, Joshua – 4 paintings; Souch, John – 1 painting; Stubbs, George – 1 paintings; Turner, J. M. W. – 1 painting; Valette, Pierre Adolphe – 5 paintings;

Francken the Younger, Frans – 1 painting; Teniers the Younger, David – 3 paintings;

Corot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille – 2 paintings; Degas, Edgar – 1 painting; Dughet, Gaspard – 1 painting; Gauguin, Eugène Henri Paul – 1 painting; Gellée, Claude – 1 painting; Mengin, Charles – 1 painting; Pissarro, Camille – 1 painting; Renoir, Pierre Auguste – 1 painting; Vernet, Claude-Joseph – 1 painting;

Zoffany, Johan – 1 painting;

Daddi, Bernardo – 1 painting; Giordano, Luca – 1 painting; Mura, Francesco de – 1 painting; Reni, Guido – 1 painting; Turchi, Alessandro – 1 painting; Zuccarelli, Francesco – 1 painting; Giovanni Ansaldo – 1 painting

Wagner, Alexander von – 1 painting