Twelve old master and 19th-century paintings from a renowned art gallery in Birmingham are to greet visitors at the National Gallery on Wednesday.

These paintings, including masterpieces by Poussin, Turner, Monet and Manet, will be displayed until September 1 as part of the celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.

The 12 paintings were acquired by Barber Institute's first director Professor Thomas Bodkin after his appointment in 1935.

The first oil painting he purchased was Nicolas Lancret's Lovers in a Landscape. "He loved visiting France at that time," said Sophie Bostock, curator of the exhibition. Lancret liked to depict the life of aristocrats, and the painting featured a pair of elegantly dressed lovers in an idyllic landscape.

The most expansive one was Christ on the Cross with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist by Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano. Paintings by Cima remained rare in the UK public collections outside the National Gallery, and the painting cost higher than the Poussin, Turner, Monet and Manet shown this time.

Other paintings also included the Sun Rising Through Vapour from William Turner, The Church at Varengeville from Claude Monet and Portrait of Carolus-Duran from Edouard Manet. Manet and Carolus-Duran were old friends and agreed to paint each other, but Manet believed there was "too much entertainment here to work seriously" and the painting remained unfinished. Bostock pointed at the lower left corner of the painting and said "you can see the canvas here."

The Barber Institute was founded in December 1932 by Lady Barber, widow of a prominent Birmingham lawyer and businessman. She wanted the institute to be a center of excellence "for the study and encouragement of art and music", and set the criteria that everything purchased should be of "that standard of quality required by the National Gallery or Wallace Collection."

The institute is best known for its fine collection of French 19th-century paintings, and is also home to many late medieval and Renaissance panel paintings.

In exchange for the 12 paintings this time, the National Gallery are lending a collection of portraits from masters like Rembrandt and Cezanne to the Barber Institute for exhibition.