In pictures: 19th Century masterpieces

The National Gallery is re-hanging its 19th Century collection to give visitors a fresh perspective on the period. Among the paintings is Manet's Music in the Tuileries Gardens.

The exhibition shows how artists of the period influenced each other. Adolf Menzel's Afternoon in the Tuileries Gardens is said to have been inspired by Manet's painting.

Possibly the most famous work in the collection is Van Gogh's Sunflowers. It is even the favourite painting of bees, researchers at the University of London discovered last year.

Paintings will be grouped together by artist for the exhibition, allowing visitors to see several iconic works by Claude Monet - such as The Water-Lily Pond - in the same room.

Several works by Renoir, including Boating on the Seine, can be found next to those of Monet. The artists often worked together and influenced each other.

Georges Seurat's Bathers at Asnieres is one of the biggest draws at the National Gallery. His original character studies for the painting were made in crayon.

Seurat later developed the pointillist style of painting, which was adopted by Camille Pissarro for The Boulevard Montmartre at Night in 1897.

Edgar Degas' paintings are collected in one room for the first time, revealing the artist's mastery of several techniques, working in oils, pastel, charcoal and pencil.

Degas' work often featured women in arresting poses, as in this portrait of the acrobat Miss La La, who caused a sensation at the Cirque Fernando in Paris.

The Manet to Picasso exhibition opens at the National Gallery on Friday, 22 September and runs until May 2007.

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