The Queen's art collection goes on public display at Buckingham Palace

Rubens, Van Dyck and Canaletto masterpieces move across the palace for an exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery

Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace at The Queen's Gallery will open to the public on 04 December. EPA

The exhibition brings together 65 of the most treasured paintings and includes works by Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer, Van Dyck and Canaletto am others. EPA

A lady looks at the Gerrit Dou painting "A Girl Chopping Onions". Getty Images

"Summer: Peasants Going to Market" by Flemish master Sir Peter Paul Rubens. EPA

"The Shipbuilder and his Wife" by Dutch master Rembrandt. EPA

"Madonna and Child in a Landscape with Tobias and the Angel" by Italian master, Titian. EPA

A self -portrait by Dutch master by Sir Peter Paul Rubens. EPA

"At Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman (The Music Lesson)" by Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. EPA

"Jacob Peeling the Rods" by Italian master Guido Cagnacci. EPA

One of the exhibition rooms at The Queen's Gallery . EPA

Art lovers will get a new close-up view of one of Britain's greatest collections from Friday when pieces kept at Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II's London residence, will be better displayed to the public.

The paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, Canaletto and others usually hang in the Picture Gallery, one of the palace’s state rooms often used for grand events.

But the old masters’ artworks were cleared out during renovations and moved to a different part of the royal household in London, into the more modern exhibition space of the Queen’s Gallery.

While tourists may have previously spotted the paintings from afar during palace tours, they will now be able to view them up closer with fewer distractions, said Desmond Shawe-Taylor, surveyor of the queen's pictures.

“What this does is bring the paintings down to eye level, put them in stronger lighting in a modern gallery setting and just allow you to focus on them and nothing else,” he said.

The palace is undergoing a 10-year refit to replace ageing electrical wiring, boilers and other infrastructure, a programme that will cost about £370 million ($500m) and is scheduled to finish in 2027.

As part of the work, the 200-year-old roof of the Picture Gallery will be replaced and all its paintings have been removed for the first time in almost 45 years.

The show Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace runs until January 31, 2022.