The City of London began collecting works of art in the
seventeenth century, when it commissioned portraits of the judges
appointed to assess property claims in the wake of the Great Fire
of London of 1666. Its collection now comprises 4,000 works of art
ranging from portraits of kings and queens to depictions of
important naval battles, from period views of historic London to
the work of contemporary artists. Since the Second World War, the
City of London’s collection has concentrated on London
subjects.
Perhaps the most popular works in the Guildhall collection are
its Victorian pictures, including well-known favourites like
Millais’ My First Sermon and My Second Sermon and
Landseer’s The First Leap , as well as a large landscape
by John Constable, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows .
The Guildhall Art Gallery also houses the famous painting The
Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar by John
Singleton Copley.