EDINBURGH.- The National Galleries of Scotland launched their first ever iPhone app. Created for the major summer exhibition Impressionist Gardens, it is now free to download from the iTunes store.

The Impressionist Gardens app includes video and audio specially created to enrich the exhibition experience, allowing visitors to discover more about the beautiful works on display. In addition an interactive map of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh enables visitors to explore the world of the Impressionists beyond the Gallery’s walls, highlighting six inspiring viewpoints which echo some of the works on show. Visitors are also able to see the programme of Impressionist Gardens events in the app calendar.

The highlight of the 2010 summer season at the National Gallery Complex is a ground-breaking exhibition on the subject of paintings of Impressionist Gardens. This major international exhibition of around 100 works is the first ever to be devoted to this fascinating subject, with spectacular loans from collections around the world. The famous names of Impressionism are well represented, with fine examples by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Manet and Sisley. In addition, the exhibition examines the continued significance of the impressionist garden to the generation of artists working immediately after the Impressionists, such as Cézanne and Pierre Bonnard. Lenders to Impressionist Gardens, which has been organised in partnership with the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart; the Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen; Tate, London; and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome. This is the only UK showing.

The launch of this exciting new app will be followed by the release of the Another World app, scheduled for September 2010, to compliment the blockbuster Surrealism exhibition at the Dean Gallery.