The painting collection is made up of more than a thousand works. Among the themes present in the collection are scenes of naval combat, ships and vessels from different periods and portraits of the great figures in the history of the Spanish Navy. The sculpture collection includes figureheads and busts of the most outstanding seamen.
PaintingThe painting collection is very diverse, ranging from oil paintings to watercolours, and from the 16th century to the 21st century, the most outstanding being the 19th-century paintings. Their subject matters are varied, ranging from portraits with effigies of the royal family, admirals, ministers of the Navy or personalities related to the naval world, to navies, naval battles or depictions of ships. The collection includes examples by artists such as Cornelis de Wael, Adam Willaerts and Juan de la Corte, as well as Vicente López, Antonio María Esquivel, Ángel Cortellini, Antonio Muñoz Degrain, Rafael Monleón, Joaquín Sorolla and José Garnelo, among others.
SculptureThe sculpture collection includes outstanding portraits of illustrious seamen, such as Jorge Juan, by Vicente Loureiro, Blas de Lezo, by Fernando Montero de Espinosa, and Federico Gravina y Napoli, by the Italian Gaetano Merchi, chamber sculptor of King Charles IV. There are also portraits of the royal family, such as the bust of Charles III by Juan Pascual de Mena, a sculpture of Alfonso XIII by Lorenzo Coullaut-Valera, and a bust of Juan de Borbón y Battenberg, Count of Barcelona and Captain General of the Spanish Navy, by Ramón Cuello Riera.