Laing Gallery
Behind the library off John Dobson’s Street on New Bridge Street is the northeast’s premier art collection held at the Laing Gallery (Monday to Saturday 10:00am – 5:00pm, Sunday 2:00pm – 5:00pm, entry is free). On permanent display is glance at British art ranging from John Hoyland to Reynolds but including a little Pre-Raphaelites enjoyed so much by English industrial barons.
One of the most visited displays is that of the work of John Martin (1789 – 1854), he was a self-taught painter from Northumberland with a thirst for mythical and biblical scenes. He was known to come from a rather dysfunctional family, he had an elder brother who always wore a tortoiseshell hat, another brother who set fire to York Minster, with the breakthroughs we have today about psychological hindsight we can easily imagine what demons drove him to perform in his beloved works.