Art News

Portrait Gallery Murals to be Cleaned for the First Time in a Quarter of a Century

EDINBURGH.- A set of stunning murals, which decorates the entrance hall of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, is to be cleaned for the first time in a quarter of a century, as part of a major conservation project funded by WREN, a not for profit business that awards grants to community projects from funds donated by Waste Recycling Group (WRG) to the Landfill Communities Fund. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery opened in 1889, as the world’s first purpose-built portrait gallery. The decorative scheme created by William Hole in the late 1890s for the Gallery’s magnificent entrance hall, is one of the building’s most striking features. It comprises a dazzling, painted procession of famous Scots (including David Livingstone, James Watt, Robert Burns, Adam Smith, David Hume, the Stuart monarchs, Robert the Bruce a