The National Gallery of Canada

Moshe Safdie's 1988 building answers the Gothic parliament buildings across the water with a glass tower of its own, and the long ramped colonnade leading up to it is one of the best interior walks in any Canadian museum. Inside, the collection is strongest on Canadian art: the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson, Emily Carr, and one of the most significant public holdings of Inuit art anywhere. Its most unexpected object is a room, the interior of the Rideau Street Convent Chapel of 1888, saved when the building was demolished and rebuilt piece by piece inside the gallery, with fan vaulting on cast iron columns. Outside stands Maman, Louise Bourgeois's nine-metre bronze spider.

History

The Gallery was founded in 1880 by the Governor General, John Campbell, later 9th Duke of Argyll, together with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and in 1882 it moved into its first home on Parliament Hill, in the Second Supreme Court of Canada building. Eric Brown became its first director in 1910, it moved to the Victoria Memorial Museum in 1911 and received its mandate under the National Gallery Act of 1913, spent the years from 1960 in the office block of the Lorne Building, and in 1988 moved into Moshe Safdie's glass and granite building on Sussex Drive (Wikipedia, National Gallery of Canada).

The main sights

• Maman - the nine-metre bronze spider on the plaza outside.
• The Rideau Street Chapel - an 1888 interior rebuilt inside the gallery.
• The Group of Seven - the core Canadian landscape collection.
• Inuit art - one of the major public holdings anywhere.

When to go

Year-round, and an obvious refuge from an Ottawa winter. Weekday mornings are quietest. Some evenings are free or discounted. The great hall and colonnade are best in daylight, so avoid arriving at closing time.

Before you go

The building is large and the Canadian galleries are the reason to come; the European collection is respectable but not why anyone travels here. Special exhibitions are ticketed separately. Sussex Drive parking is limited and the museum is a walk from the main hotel district.

Nearby

Parliament Hill and the Rideau Canal are across the bridge; the ByWard Market is next door.

Key facts