Lesser known artists fail to draw crowds

Visitor numbers at the National Gallery have fallen since it started showing lesser-known artists, latest figures show.

Despite good reviews, two shows this year featuring relatively unknown Italian painters have proved far less popular than curators had hoped.

An exhibition of 18th-century Italian Pompeo Batoni drew fewer than 19,000 paying visitors - 45 per cent of the expected figure of 35,000.

And Radical Light, which ends this weekend, is set to attract only 30,000 since it opened three months ago despite a projected 50,000 turnout.

Nicholas Penny, the Gallery's director, said always running big names was not sustainable. He said: "You would eventually run out of Vel·zquez or Caravaggio shows, and my view is that we have to lower people's expectations.

"I won't stop giving exhibitions to lesser-known artists but I will be careful to present them in a different way."