Velazquez show is a sell-out

The National Gallery's Velazquez exhibition has proved a near sell-out before it has even opened.

The show by the Spanish 17th century painter opens tomorrow but already 10,000 tickets have been sold - a record for the gallery.

So great is the demand that the National has temporarily re-hung its impressionist collection to free up its major spaces.

Gallery director Charles Saumarez Smith has described Velazquez as "a remarkable exhibition which will change the dynamics of the institution". It is the first major British show devoted to the artist.

The National's exhibition will display half of the world's surviving works by Vel·zquez including eight major loans from the Museo del Prado, Madrid.

In addition to portraits of Philip IV of Spain, to whom Vel·zquez was appointed court painter in 1625, the exhibition will include his most celebrated work The Toilet of Venus.

The only surviving example of a nude by Vel·zquez, it is sometimes referred to as "The Rokeby Venus" because it was in the Morritt Collection at Rokeby Hall in Yorkshire before its acquisition by the National Gallery a century ago. Spanning all aspects of his life, the exhibition will also include examples of his religious and mythological paintings as well as his portraits.

Vel·zquez greatly influenced future generations of painters including Picasso, Dali, Francis Bacon and Manet who dubbed him " the painters' painter".

The Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca was last night given a preview of the exhibition. The Infanta, 41, younger daughter of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, seemed particularly taken by the portrait of her ancestor Infanta Maria Theresa in Pink, on loan from Vienna.

Following the Vel·zquez exhibition, the National Gallery will run a show devoted to Renoir's impressionist masterpieces from February to May next year. Next summer will bring Dutch Portraits: The Age Of Rembrandt And Frans Hals.