From which building was this view painted? The great British art quiz

A vision of empire ... painted in 1904 by Niels Møller Lund (1863-1916). Photograph: Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London Corporation

This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions.

Today, our questions are set by Guildhall Art Gallery, situated in London’s Square Mile. The collection is rich in Victorian art, ranging from the pre-Raphaelites to orientalism, classicism and narrative painting. The gallery’s collection of London paintings takes visitors on a colourful journey into the city’s past, covering everything from dramatic events such as the Great Fire of London to everyday street scenes.

You can see art from Guildhall Art Gallery on Art UK here. Find out more on the Guildhall Art Gallery website here.

1. 

   Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782 (1783-1791) by John Singleton Copley is one of the Gallery’s most famous paintings. But what is it famous for?

   1. Being the largest

   2. Being the oldest

   3. Being the smallest

   4. Being missing

2. 

   What lies beneath the Guildhall Art Gallery?

   1. A lost London river

   2. A Roman amphitheatre

   3. A Saxon burial ground

   4. A car park

3. 

   The Gallery holds the studio collection of works by which British post-impressionist, pictured in this self-portrait of 1909?

   1. Roger Fry

   2. Augustus John

   3. Matthew Smith

   4. Harold Gilman

4. 

   Guildhall Art Gallery is owned and managed by the City of London Corporation, the municipal governing body of the Square Mile. When was the first artwork collected?

   1. 1670

   2. 1886

   3. 1558

   4. 1215

5. 

   Which Newlyn school artist painted this image of a net mender?

   1. Elizabeth Forbes

   2. Laura Knight

   3. Alethea Garstin

   4. Marianne Stokes

6. 

   This detailed panorama was painted from the roof of which building?

   1. Mansion House

   2. Royal Exchange

   3. Bank of England

   4. No 1 Poultry

7. 

   La Ghirlandata (1873) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti is one of the gallery’s most popular paintings. What instrument does the central figure hold?

   1. Harp

   2. Lyre

   3. Arpanetta

   4. Guitar

8. 

   Julian Perry painted this view in 1995 from Hackney Marshes. What is the name of the building on the far left?

   1. One Canada Square

   2. The Gherkin

   3. The Shard

   4. 25 Churchill Place

Solutions

1:A - Initially commissioned by the City of London Corporation to celebrate victory over Spain, they refused to accept Copley’s first version, as it emphasised the navy too much. Copley took a further seven years to complete the painting, as he was forced to travel across Europe (at his own expense) to paint portraits of various military men present at the battle – hence the two distinct groups of figures on either side of the canvas. Image: Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782 (The Siege of Gibraltar), 1783-1791, John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London Corporation, 2:B - The remains of a Roman amphitheatre were discovered in 1988 by Museum of London archaeologists excavating the site during the rebuilding of the Gallery. The building project was set back 11 years because of the discovery. The ruins were eventually incorporated into the site and opened to visitors in 2002. Image: Roman amphitheatre © Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London Corporation, 3:C - Sir Matthew Smith (1879–1959) was born in Halifax and trained at Manchester School of Art and the Slade School of Art. Smith also studied under Henri Matisse at his short-lived Atelier in Paris, and became influenced by the fauvist style. He is best known for highly-coloured portrait nudes, though he produced a great range of still lifes, and landscapes. Guildhall Art Gallery was bequeathed Smith’s studio collection in 1974 by Mary Keene, which included hundreds of paintings, studies, and sketchbooks. Image: Self Portrait, 1909, Matthew Arnold Bracy Smith (1879-1959) © the artist’s estate. Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London Corporation, 4:A - The Corporation commissioned the portraits of 22 ‘Fire Judges’ – those responsible for resolving property disputes arising from the Great Fire of London, in thanks for the speed with which the Fire Court acted. All 22 paintings originally hung in the historic Guildhall itself. The finest surviving example is of Sir Hugh Wyndham, by John Michael Wright. It also has the finest surviving frame – in the auricular or Sunderland style. The Fire Judge frames were carved and gilded by five frame-makers, three of whom were women. Image: Sir Hugh Wyndham (1602-1684), Judge of the Common Pleas, 1670, John Michael Wright (1617-1694), Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London Corporation, 5:D - Marianne Stokes (nee Preindlsberger) was Austrian-born and became a leading figure of the Newlyn school, along with her husband Adrian Stokes. The humble Net Mender is an example of her shift towards a medievalist style, which she adopted from the 1890s. Image: The Net Mender, 1899-1900, Marianne Stokes (1855-1927), Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London Corporation, 6:B - Niels Møller Lund's (1863-1916) painting, The Heart of the Empire, 1904 embodies all the optimism and pride of the young 20th century and refers to the City of London as the centre of the world economy. At the time, the British empire was at its height. However, not long after, it would begin to break up. Image: The Heart of the Empire, 1904, Niels Møller Lund (1863-1916), Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London Corporation, 7:C - Rossetti invites multi-sensory appeal in this work by including allusions to sound through the harp and songbird, and to scent via the flowers. Musical instruments in Rossetti’s later work are often seen as a metaphor for sexuality. The sensuous image evades narrative, instead using symbols, rich colours and textural detail to create an overall effect of beauty. Rossetti himself thought highly of this painting, and described it as ‘the greenest picture in the world’. Image: La Ghirlandata, 1873, oil on canvas, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828- 1882), Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London Corporation, 8:A - Perry lives in Leyton and much of his work is based around the open space of the nearby Hackney Marshes. This view was painted near the Eastway cycle track, looking towards the City. Perry often makes references in his work to that of great artists of the past, most notably, as here, to John Constable (1776-1837). Image: Sunset and Cycle Track II, 1995, Julian Perry (b 1960) © the artist. Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London Corporation

Scores

1. 6 and above.

   Simply capital!

2. 0 and above.

   You'll be vexed in the City with this result.

3. 3 and above.

   A middling result – perhaps a visit to the Square Mile is in order.