LONDON.-The National Gallery has teamed up with Eurostar to launch a unique digital art gallery at the newly refurbished St Pancras International station. Called Station Masters, the installation offers travellers access to National Gallery paintings while they relax in the departure lounge.

Travellers can choose from a 100 masterpieces from the National Gallery collection, including works by Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Van Gogh and Monet.

Using hi-resolution digital scans, travellers can zoom into each painting at a level of detail that only in-house experts would normally get to see. Surprising details that travellers can reveal include Van Eyck’s appearance in his own painting in the mirror of the ‘Arnolfini Portrait’.

The paintings are shown on large, elegantly presented screens. Viewers control the display using touch screens, which are embedded into coffee tables in the departure lounge seating area. They can also send an e-card of their favourite painting to friends and family.

Travellers can browse the paintings on offer by choosing from eight emotive themes: love, identity, light, celebration, discovery, passion, peace and time. The paintings include National Gallery highlights such as Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’, Velázquez’s ‘Rokeby Venus’ and Turner’s ‘Fighting Temeraire’.

Launching the system at London’s St Pancras International terminal, the Director of the National Gallery, Nicholas Penny said:

‘Eurostar wanted to give this terminal a clear identity rooted in London’s rich cultural offering. What better way to do this than to enable travellers to immerse themselves in some of the greatest paintings in Western European art from the National Gallery’s collection?’

This is the latest project to show paintings outside the Gallery. It follows the success of the Grand Tour last summer when reproductions of National Gallery paintings were displayed on the streets of Soho.