John Virtue was invited to become the sixth National Gallery Associate Artist because of his deep-rooted relationship with the great European landscape tradition that is magnificently represented in the museum’s collection. Working in the National Gallery’s studio, Virtue has made an unprecedented series of large-scale paintings that represent the London cityscape looking towards St. Paul’s and a smaller group showing Trafalgar Square from the roof of the National Gallery. Executed solely in black and white, they are monumental, epic works.

This book illustrates all of Virtue’s London paintings and a selection of his drawings. Following an introduction by Charles Saumarez Smith, other contributors explore the artist’s place in both the context of his contemporaries and in the historical tradition of London cityscapes, the connection between Virtue’s earlier work and the paintings and drawings he has made at the National Gallery, and Virtue’s new paintings in the context of his residency at the National Gallery.