The V&A will this autumn display 200 works from its extensive paintings collection in a new suite of five galleries. These galleries were originally built to house the Museum’s paintings collection during the 1850s and will showcase works given by John Sheepshanks and other collectors between 1857 and 1901. The final gallery is devoted to the magnificent bequest of old master and nineteenth century paintings given by Constantine Ionides. It will evoke the passions and interests of a leading representative of progressive Victorian taste. Ionides was a friend of Rossetti, Legros and Watts. His collection includes paintings by Botticelli and Tintoretto as well as important works by Burne-Jones, Ingres, Delacroix, Millet and Degas. To mark the opening of the new galleries, the National Museum, Liverpool is lending one of the greatest pre-Raphaelite paintings, Isabella (1848) by Millais. The painting, once part of the Ionides collection, will be on display until the end of January 2004.

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