People just love Love Art

How can museums and art galleries get young people to take a break from computer games and learn about Cézanne, Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt? London's National Gallery thinks it has found the answer. In the last three months, 250,000 people have downloaded its Love Art application from Apple's iTunes store.

Exploring the collection's universal themes of love, passion, beauty and death, the application allows iPhone and iTouch users to experience 250 of the Gallery's best-loved paintings in the palm of their hand. The app's 200 minutes of audio and video include interviews with National Gallery director Dr Nicholas Penny, artist Maggie Hambling and Girl with a Pearl Earring author Tracy Chevalier.

"The National Gallery is delighted to be involved in such an exciting and ground-breaking project. We look forward to expanding the application further and reaching new publics," Penny said in a press release.

The National Gallery was founded in 1824 and it houses Britain's most extensive collection of European paintings from the late 13th to the early 20th century. The 2,300 works include masterpieces by Bellini, van Eyck, Rembrandt, Velázquez, Raphael, Turner, Degas, Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Rubens and Titian. Some five million people visit the Gallery each year.