The long Room
Every painting here has waited a long time to be looked at slowly.
In the long room today
No. 112
Woman reading by a window
The Quiet Table
Forty paintings of breakfast tables, window seats and fruit left out on a ledge. An exhibition about the rooms where nothing much happens, and the painters who stayed to watch.
- Dates 12 September 2026 to 17 January 2027
- Where Rooms V, VI and VII, first floor
- Tickets Included with admission, timed entry at weekends
- Audio Twelve stops, about forty minutes
A year in three rooms
Nine rooms, one slow walk
- IEntrance hall Six paintings hung in the round, the long room's welcomeGround floor
- IIPortraits Three centuries of faces, hung shoulder to shoulderGround floor
- IIINorthern interiors Breakfast rooms, window seats and quiet workGround floor
- IVLandscapes River valleys, autumn farms and long eveningsFirst floor
- V to VIIThe Quiet Table Temporary exhibition, until 17 JanuaryFirst floor
- VIIISea and weather Harbours, cliffs and fleets at anchorFirst floor
- IXStudy room Drawings and prints, shown by appointment on FridaysSecond floor
Hung the old way, close together
In the old picture halls, paintings climbed the walls frame to frame. We still hang Room II that way, floor to cornice, so your eye can wander the way it did two hundred years ago.
Reclining woman in white silk, oil on canvas
Lake below the mountains, oil on canvas
Boy with a rose, oil on canvas
Farm in winter, oil on canvas
Gorge with a waterfall, oil on canvas
Sunset over the sea, oil on canvas
Horse in a meadow, oil on canvas
Ten minutes with one painting
Pick one picture, sit down and give it ten minutes. Here is how our hosts walk a group through a summer terrace in Room III.
- 1
The armful of roses
The brightest white in the picture is in her arms, not on a face. Look there first, then notice how the eye is pulled back to the seated pair.
- 2
A line of sea
The horizon runs straight through the three heads at almost the same height, which is why the scene feels so still.
- 3
The open book
Someone has stopped reading to listen. The page is lit, the reader is not: a small story told without a single gesture.
- 4
The rug and the cushion
The warm reds of the cushion and the side table come back in the rug, tying the left of the picture to the right.
Before you come in
Opening hours
- Monday Closed
- Tuesday 10:00 to 18:00
- Wednesday 10:00 to 18:00
- Thursday 10:00 to 21:00
- Friday 10:00 to 18:00
- Saturday 10:00 to 18:00
- Sunday 10:00 to 18:00
Last entry 45 minutes before closing. Late opening every Thursday.
Admission
- Adult $18
- Concession $12
- Under 18 Free
- Members Free
Sample prices. The first Sunday of each month is free for everyone.
Book a timed ticketGetting here
14 Tannery Row, Old Quarter
- Tram 4 to Tannery Row, two minutes on foot
- Bike racks at the Garden Court gate
- Parking on Mill Street, 400 metres away
- Step-free entrance and a lift to every floor
This month in the hall
Ochre Hall, membership card
Friend of the Hall
Free entry for a year, with a guest on Thursdays
Members walk in free
A membership keeps the lights low and the doors open. In return you can drop in for ten minutes or a whole afternoon, as often as you like.
- Free entry to every room and exhibition, all year
- Bring a guest free on Thursday evenings
- Members' mornings before the doors open
- Ten per cent off in the shop and the café
Woman with a book and an angel, oil on canvas, Room II
Bring a pencil, stay a while
Drawing is allowed in every room. Stools and pencils wait by the cloakroom, and on Saturday mornings an artist walks the rooms with anyone who wants to try.
Come in, and take your time
Doors open at ten. Thursdays stay open until nine, with the lights a little lower and the rooms a little quieter.
Under 18s and members walk in free