The National Gallery has unveiled three notable additions to its collection following a major gift from Dallas-based collectors Richard and Luba Barrett, with the works on display from 2 July 2026. The donation includes paintings by three celebrated Swiss artists – Angelica Kauffmann, Ferdinand Hodler and Alexandre Calame – and marks an important expansion of the Gallery’s holdings. Kauffmann’s Achilles Discovered among the Daughters of Lycomedes is especially significant as the first of her history paintings in oils to enter a UK national collection and the first work by the artist to join the National Gallery’s collection in more than a century.
Painted between 1777 and 1778 at the height of Kauffmann’s success in Europe, the large preparatory work depicts the Greek myth of Achilles being discovered while disguised among the daughters of King Lycomedes. Kauffmann, one of only two female founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768, enjoyed a successful career in London before moving to Rome – there, she created the painting as a study for a commission by Catherine the Great. The Gallery has also acquired Hodler’s Portrait of Louis Montchal, the first portrait by the influential Swiss modernist to enter its collection, alongside Calame’s Four Large Trees, bolstering its renowned collection of 19th century Swiss landscapes.
National Gallery Director Sir Gabriele Finaldi has described the donation as a “generous gift of three outstanding pictures” that enriches the Gallery’s representation of Swiss art from the 18th and 19th centuries. Visitors can view Kauffmann’s Achilles Discovered among the Daughters of Lycomedes in Room 37, Hodler’s Portrait of Louis Montchal in Room 44, and Calame’s Four Large Trees in Room 39.
