LONDON，Feb. 6 (People's Daily Online) —— 264,488 people visited National Gallery exhibition Rembrandt: The Late Works. This makes the exhibition one of the most popular in National Gallery's history.

National Gallery Director Dr Nicholas Penny said: “No more rewarding purpose can be served by an international loan exhibition than the opportunity to reappraise the entire range of a great artist’s work. But the greater the artist, the harder it is to mount such an exhibition. Rembrandt: The Late Works has been an unforgettable experience for thousands of visitors and it has been deeply rewarding for us.”

The “must-see show of the season” was six years in the planning and the first ever in-depth exploration of Rembrandt’s final years of painting. That period of his life was turbulent and marked with controversy, but it was also when he produced some of his most soulful, deeply moving and strikingly modern works. Through more than 80 famous masterpieces, rare drawings and prints gathered at the Gallery from around the globe, the exhibition examined the themes that preoccupied Rembrandt as he grew older.

As part of the National Gallery’s commitment to improve its visitor experience, ticketing is now managed in house and the public are able to purchase tickets via the Gallery’s website with no booking fee incurred. Visitors to the exhibition also benefited from extended opening hours on Sunday evenings from December 2014 and additional after-hours viewings were staged over the final weekend to attempt to meet the huge public demand.

Cinemas up and down the UK also had a chance on 2 December to see Rembrandt: The Late Works on the big screen as part of the second season of EXHIBITION ON SCREEN.