The National Gallery in London has opened ‘Zurbarán’, described by the institution as the first major UK exhibition devoted to Spanish Baroque painter Francisco de Zurbarán. The exhibition runs in the Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing from 2 May to 23 August 2026 and brings together religious paintings and still lifes spanning the artist’s career, from early commissions to works made for private devotion.
According to the National Gallery, the show has been assembled with works from major collections across Europe and the United States. Its core presentation includes the painter’s best-known religious subjects alongside still lifes that the Gallery says reveal his vivid naturalism, deep emotional power and unusual intensity in ordinary things. The exhibition text highlights Zurbarán’s ability to move between soaring altarpieces and intimate devotional works while maintaining a consistent visual focus on strong light, deep shadow and carefully observed surfaces.
Zurbarán, a contemporary of Murillo and Velázquez, is positioned by the Gallery as a central figure in the art of Baroque Seville. The exhibition page describes him as a painter whose art combines stillness, focus and faith, and whose imagery can range from the rind of a lemon to the gaze of a saint. The Gallery also notes that one of the artist’s still lifes, ‘Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose’, is his only signed and dated still life and has become an icon of 17th-century Spanish art.
The exhibition’s selection includes works such as ‘Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth’, ‘Agnus Dei’, ‘The Crucifixion’ and ‘Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose’. The Gallery’s online highlights also identify ‘The Crucifixion’ as a 1627 work that an 18th-century writer said appeared sculptural in the dimly lit sacristy where it was once seen. Other highlighted works underline the artist’s technical range, from the realistic rendering of a lamb’s fleece in ‘Agnus Dei’ to the domestic reimagining of a sacred subject in ‘Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth’.
The National Gallery says ‘Zurbarán’ is organised with Musée du Louvre, Paris, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition page also lists support from several corporate and philanthropic backers, including Headline Corporate Supporter Iberdrola and ScottishPower, BBVA, Fondation Socindec, The Elizabeth Cayzer Charitable Trust, The Vaseppi Trust, Robert Lehman Foundation, Karyl Nairn KC, Count and Countess Emilio Voli and ARTscapades. Tickets are required, with standard admission priced at £20 off-peak and £22 on Fridays and Saturdays; under-18s go free.
The Gallery has also promoted press reactions to the exhibition, including comments from The Observer, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Standard, The Guardian and The New York Times. It says visitors can also choose a pay-what-you-wish scheme on Friday evenings from 22 May to 7 August 2026, when entry can cost as little as £1. The exhibition is open daily at the National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing, Trafalgar Square, London, until 23 August 2026.
