Zurbarán

The first major monographic exhibition in the United Kingdom dedicated to Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664) will open at the National Gallery next spring (2 May–23 August 2026). Alongside Diego Velázquez (1599–1660) and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682), Zurbarán was one of the leading painters of seventeenth-century Spain. 

His works—including striking life-size representations of saints, imposing altarpieces, and contemplative still lifes—are celebrated for their naturalism, directness, and profound emotional power. The exhibition, which will bring together nearly fifty paintings, will cover the full chronological and iconographic breadth of the artist’s career. It will assemble outstanding works from public and private collections, including loans from the Musée du Louvre (Saint Bonaventure on His Bier and Saint Apollonia) and the Art Institute of Chicago (The Crucifixion, Saint Romanus of Antioch and Saint Bartholomew, as well as Flowers and Fruit in a Chinese Bowl by Juan de Zurbarán). 

These two institutions are the exhibition’s partner museums, to which it will travel between October 2026 and June 2027. The exhibition will also include works from the National Gallery’s own collection (among them Saint Margaret of Antioch and Still Life with Lemons in a Wicker Basket, also by Juan de Zurbarán). Other important loans from France (Saint Francis of Assisi, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon), Spain (Agnus Dei and Christ Crucified with a Painter, Museo Nacional del Prado; Saint Casilda, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza), and the United States (Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth, Cleveland Museum of Art; Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose, The Norton Simon Foundation) will complete this comprehensive survey of Zurbarán’s career, which seeks to evoke the mystery, intensity, and power of his art. Zurbarán spent most of his life in Seville, then one of the richest cities in Europe, whose maritime links with the Americas made it a centre of global trade. He worked primarily for the city’s religious orders, producing altarpieces and painted cycles of astonishing scale and inventiveness, but he also worked for private patrons and, for a time in Madrid, for the King of Spain. He was also a keen observer of reality, and his still lifes and works intended for private devotion continue to appear extraordinarily vivid today. 

The exhibition will be organised into seven distinct sections. The first gallery will introduce the artist and explore his singular ability to inspire awe as a painter, his deeply personal vision of the subjects he depicted, and the distinctive features of his artistic language (The Apparition of Saint Peter to Saint Peter Nolasco and Christ Crucified with a Painter, both from the Museo Nacional del Prado).