NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery re-opened in June 2023 following a three-year refurbishment; a favourite of mine; and it's free.
The collection has over 200,000 images, many can be seen on their website. What follows are my personal highlights; most sitters portrayed here feature elsewhere in this blog.
Most of the images below are downloaded from the National Portrait Gallery's brilliant archive and can be used 'in non-commercial projects including blogs'. Where restrictions forbid their use you can still click on the names to view the portraits online - or, better still, visit the gallery.

I've numbered the rooms in which the pictures are exhibited. Rooms 1-18 are on the 3rd floor; 19-28 the 2nd; 29-32 the 1st; 33 floor 0. Apart from a couple of notable exceptions, all are current (December 2023) exhibits.

You can walk in anytime but it's advisable to book a slot online before visiting.

William Shakespeare (Room 3)

There are former monarchs galore, here are some of the most familiar ones:

Henry VIII (1) Elizabeth I (1)

This 'cartoon' by Hans Holbein the Younger is part of the template for a wall painting Henry VIII commissioned for Whitehall Palace. Also shown is Henry's father, Henry VII. A further section to the right, now lost, depicted his third wife Jane Seymour and mother Elizabeth of York. Holbein pricked along the outlines of the cartoon then transferred the image onto the wall using either chalk or charcoal dust brushed into the holes. The completed painting was lost in the Whitehall Palace fire of 1698.

Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Sir Henry Lee, once the Queen's Champion, had fallen out with her. He commissioned this portrait in the hope of regaining her favour; and it did the trick. It is known as the Ditchley Portrait - Ditchley being Lee's estate near Oxford where he organised lavish entertainment for the queen. It shows Elizabeth standing on the globe with her feet in Oxfordshire.

Charles I (4) Charles II (6)

Oliver Cromwell (6) Samuel Pepys (6)

Abridged history of the British monarchy .....

For many years there were lots of kings and the occasional queen. Then Charles I was beheaded and Oliver Cromwell became the only British head of state not to have a royal title. Puritan Cromwell closed all the theatres and would have banned television had it existed. His New Model Army killed lots of people, especially the Irish and Scots. This didn't go down well so the monarchy was restored with Charles II throned. The new king, dubbed The Merry Monarch was whatever the opposite of puritan is, with many mistresses. The most famous of these was Nell Gwyn (6) described by diarist Samuel Pepys as "'pretty, witty, Nell'. Specialising in 'glamour work' Nell was very popular with the leading artists of the day. Charles II fathered at least twelve bastards but had no legitimate heir and so was succeeded by his younger brother James II. Then there followed lots more kings and occasional (long-serving) queens, before we finally got a third Charles (33). Interestingly, barring a Cromwellian comeback, William V (33) will be the first British monarch descended from Charles II - being an ancestor of Princess Diana (28). (Come on, you don't get this sort of detail in The Crown).

Queen Victoria (15) Queen Victoria carving (23)

Images of Queen Victoria symbolised the British Empire at its zenith and the NPG collection has over 500 portraits of her. Many, including this wood offering by an unknown carver in Lagos, are by artists who had never seen her in the flesh as she never travelled beyond Europe, not even to India as their Empress. They likely worked from photographs, the first of Victoria being taken in the early 1840s.

The Royal family at Buckingham Palace, 1913 (19)

Probably the most striking of all the royal portraits is this massive oil on canvas by Sir John Lavery. This family portrait shows King George V and Queen Mary with two of their children, Prince Edward (later Edward VIII) and Princess Mary.

A relatively recent portrait of Queen Elizabeth II & Prince Philip can be found in Room 30.

Emma Hamilton and Lord Nelson (18) Kitty Fisher (18)

Emma Hart had a string of older lovers before marrying Sir William Hamilton and then becoming the mistress of Horatio Nelson. This is one of many portraits of her by George Romney, who was clearly besotted, but it is unlikely his affection was reciprocated.

Courtesan Kitty Fisher was one of the world's first celebrities who was not famous for being an actress, musician, or member of the royalty, but simply for being famous. Now we have loads of them. Kitty posed for many of the artists of the time including top man Joshua Reynolds. This portrait is by Nathaniel Hone who included the kitty cat fishing for goldfish as a visual pun.

The Brontë Sisters (21) Jane Austen *

This is the only surviving group painting of (left to right) Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë. It was thought to be lost but discovered folded up on top of a wardrobe in 1914. Since then, the oil paint has become transparent with age and the ghostly image of their brother Branwell Brontë has appeared. Branwell, at the age of 17, painted the picture but then covered his self-portrait with a pillar; the reason is unknown. After much debate, given it's history, the NPG decided not to restore the work.

The small drawing of Jane Austen is by her sister Cassandra. It is believed to be the only portrait from life to show Jane's face and was the basis for a late nineteenth-century engraving, commissioned by Austen's nephew. It can be seen on the ten pound bank note - where it will remain on the new King Charles tenners.

* NB this Austen portrait is no longer on display 'due to the light sensitivity of the work'.

Click on their names to also see portraits of Agatha Christie (with her daughter Rosalind (25) and Beatrix Potter (19). The Potter portrait by her neighbour records her role as a breeder of Herdwick sheep and a respected judge at agricultural shows

Charles Dickens (21) Oscar Wilde (24) Constance Lloyd (24)

Charles Dickens sat for this portrait in 1839 around the time of the completion of Nicholas Nickleby which had been issued in nineteen monthly instalments.

Irish writer Constance Lord was Oscar Wilde's wife (yes, he had a wife!)

Rudyard Kipling (19) Alfred Lord Tennyson (22) Lord Byron (17)

Ada Lovelace (20) Charles Babbage (16)

Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter, was the world's first computer programmer. Her friend and mentor Charles Babbage invented the world's first computer - the Difference Engine. The computer language Ada, used by the US Department of Defense, is named after Lovelace.

Alan Turing (27) Tim Berners-Lee (28)

The tragic story of brilliant WW2 codebreaker Turing is well known especially by those who've seen The Imitation Game. He is generally considered to be the father of modern computing science.

The sculpture of Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, is cast in bronze and painted. He is carrying the indispensable leather rucksack in which he keeps his laptop.

When Berners-Lee appeared during the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony an NBC commentator reputedly said: "If you haven't heard of him, we haven't either. But you can google him!".

Here's some more notable Brits currently on display. If you've not heard of them, you can google them ....

Isaac Newton (9) Michael Faraday (16) Humphry Davy (16)

Newton was one of the greatest of all scientists, best known for his theory of universal gravitation.
Amongst other things, Michael Faraday pretty much invented the electric motor. He is pictured next to a trough battery.
In front of Humphry Davy is the miners safety lamp which he invented and bears his name. It may not be very bright but it won't cause an explosion. There's more about Faraday and Davy under the Royal Institution in Mayfair (East).

Bacteriologist Alexander Fleming (27) discovered penicillin, the first effective antibiotic.

Charles Darwin (19) James Watt (16) John Logie Baird (19)

Darwin's theory of evolution caused a big stir amongst those uncomfortable with being descended from apes.

To James Watt 'watching a kettle boil' wasn't a waste of time. His steam engine became a cornerstone of the Industrial Revolution.

We have John Logie Baird to thank for the first ever TV transmission ..... although there wasn't much on that day.

Duke of Wellington (3) George Frideric Handel (18) T.E. Lawrence (25)

This Thomas Lawrence portrait of Wellington was commissioned by Sarah Child-Villiers. Lawrence died before it was finished and Child-Villiers refused the executor's offer to have the portrait completed by a studio assistant despite the fact artists often left their protégés to add the clothing. But at least the haughty expression, so typical of the Iron Duke, had been finished. The Goya portrait of Wellington can be seen next door in the National Gallery. It was famously stolen from there in 1961, the story told in the 2020 film The Duke.

This portrait of an elderly and blind Handel with the score of Messiah was painted for Handel's friend, Charles Jennens, who selected the words for the masterpiece. It was purchased for the NPG in 1968 for what, at the time, was the prohibitive price of £9,450. The money was raised by the Gallery making its first ever public appeal to secure a portrait for the nation.

Other successful appeals have followed, notably Lawrence's Wellington.

Moving smoothly on to another Lawrence, Thomas Edward was better known as 'Lawrence of Arabia' after taking part in the 1916 Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire.

Florence Nightingale (19) Isambard Kingdom Brunel (21) George Bradshaw (17)

Nurse Nightingale was a hero of the Crimean War. She hated publicity, only agreeing to sit for this bust when soldiers gave a penny each to pay sculptor John Robert Steell.

Brunel was the most celebrated civil engineer of the nineteenth century.

Printer and engraver Bradshaw published Britain's first railway guide and timetable at a time when over 150 different companies operated the network. Bradshaws are Michael Portillo's bibles for his BBC series of Great Railway Journeys.

Winston Churchill (19), pictured before resigning as First Lord of the Admiralty during World War I, not his 'greatest hour'. Click here for Graham Sutherland's preparation work (28) for his 1954 portrait of the great man. Churchill hated the completed portrait, saying it made him look 'half-witted'. Winston's wife Clementine later had the portrait destroyed.

Sir Christopher Wren (9)

The aerial view of St Paul's (which I took from a helicopter. 👏👏Yeah!) is in stark contrast to the contemporary designs of architect Erno Goldfinger (27) who specialised in tower blocks like Trellick Tower (above). Goldfinger's portrait by surrealist Eileen Agar ironically portrays him flanked not by high-rise towers but images of the Pantheon in Rome. See also Mayfair East.

Emmeline Pankhurst (25) Christabel Pankhurst (24)

Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel Pankhurst led a militant suffragettes campaign which included vandalising paintings in the National Portrait Gallery. Thereafter any women entering were required to have their bags searched. At the same time the British Museum would only allow women entry if they were accompanied by a man. Sylvia Pankhurst (29), another daughter, is also exhibited. All three paintings are by women, the one of Sylvia a self-portrait.

John Constable (17) J,M.W.Turner (17)

Constable, one of England's greatest landscape painters, had little contemporary success at home. However, The Hay Wain did receive a gold medal at the 1824 Paris Salon. It can be seen at the National Gallery.

Joseph Mallord William Turner's impressionistic style was controversial. Constable described his paintings as 'airy visions painted with tinted steam'. Turner was a very private person who rarely sat. John Linnell painted this portrait from memory.

Other artists are less self-conscious than Turner. Here are some self-portraits ....

Anthony van Dyck (4) George Stubbs (18) William Hogarth (9)

Flemish by birth, van Dyck was by far the most influential painter to work in Britain during the seventeenth century. Before van Dyck, British portraiture was much more formal. This self portrait dominates the room. The frame, with a sunflower motif, is thought to be original and likely to have been designed with van Dyck's involvement.

It seems George Stubbs couldn't only paint horses. He experimented painting on a variety of surfaces. This is enamel on a plaque made by his friend Josiah Wedgwood.

Hogarth's self-portrait shows him painting the Muse of Comedy. X-rays have revealed the picture originally included a dog urinating against a pile of Old Master paintings.

Lucian Freud (26) painted many self-portraits in his own distinctive style. This is titled Man's Head (Self Portrait III). I don't know what grandfather Sigmund would have made of it all.

David Hockney (30) features in many of his own creations, working directly onto canvas in oils, with no preparatory drawings or photographs. Here he's in his studio in Hollywood Hills with his close friend Charlie Scheips.

If you are going for a self-portrait why not be a bit self-indulgent. Maybe Raqib Shaw (30) has the right idea. But perhaps Marc Quinn (32) has gone a bit too far .....

.... and inevitably, tucked away, at the top of the escalator, is a casting of Anthony Gormley ....

Gormley's castings of his own naked body pop up all over the place. Top right is in the Thames outside The Grapes pub in Shadwell. Sir Ian McKellen is part owner of the pub and it is rumoured he actually owns the sculpture. There's another Gormley at the Wellcome Collection, Euston Road. But, well worth a visit, is the beach at Crosby near Liverpool where there are 100 Gormley's in his Another Place installation.

Joshua Reynolds (18) Samuel Johnson (3)

Reynolds was perhaps the most popular and prolific of all British portrait artists. He was 24 when he painted this self-portrait. Lexicographer Johnson was one of his subjects. Johnson's house is worth a visit. It's just off Fleet Street where I've written at length about him.

With over 1400 of Reynold's portraits in the NPG collection, pride of place goes to Mai (Omai) (18), his depiction of the first Polynesian to visit England. Reynold's masterpiece is valued at £15 million. It was the first British portrait to represent a person of colour with grandeur, dignity and authority.

The National Portrait Gallery also has some seriously impressive larger paintings ....

..... here House of Commons 1833 (12) by George Hayter ....

.... or at least Where's Wellington?

Hayter abandoned the idea of painting all 658 members of parliament, settling for 375. But he was careful to maintain the relative proportions of the parties.

It took him ten years to complete his enormous work. No one was interested in buying it and a further fifteen years had passed before Hayter persuaded the government to purchase the painting for the newly founded National Portrait Gallery.

The NPG is dedicated to portraits of the British. However, there are a few exceptions .....

George Washington (10) Benjamin Franklin (10)

Washington and Franklin were two of the seven key Founding Fathers of the United States, with Washington being the first POTUS.

Franklin's portrait, by Joseph Siffred Duplessis, can be seen on American 100 dollar bills, Benjamins in US slang.

Mahatma Gandhi (27) Nelson Mandela (entrance hall)

It could be argued that Washington, Franklin, Gandhi and Mandela were all British-born, in British America, British India and British South Africa. Pakistani Malala Yousafzai (30) certainly wasn't. However, the human rights activist does now live in Britain. This photograph of Malala, the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, is hand-inscribed with a poem by Pashto poet Rahmat Shah Sayel.

The photo of Gandhi was taken on his historic visit to Britain in 1931. (There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing". Alfred Wainwright)

The Mandela bust is one of a set of three sculptures by Ian Walters. One is on the South Bank and the other in Parliament Square.

And so to popular culture .....

..... little of which I can reproduce here, so click on the names ....

Judi Dench (30) David Attenborough (28) Elton John ('On the Throne') (28), George Michael (28) (in 1985, the year he appeared at Live Aid), Ed Sheeran (33), Annie Lennox (28) (Eurythmics Touch album cover), The Beatles (30) (by celebrated war photojournalist Don McCullin).

Meanwhile David Beckham (30) sleeps on. Sam Taylor-Wood's David is a video of him in 2004 taking a nap after a Real Madrid training session.
The 'portrait' takes up considerably less time than Michelangelo took to create his David (uncompromising Juventus midfielder?). But, with so much more to see, I doubt if anyone has 107 minutes to watch the whole Beckham video.
"The image is also unashamedly beautiful. Beckham's limbs and face are warmly lit, looming out of a Caravaggio-esque gloom. The curves of his musculature and honeyed tone of his skin are sensuously conveyed. This is a David as physically perfect as Michelangelo's". The Guardian

Virginia Wade (28)

Wynne died, aged 88, in 2014 without divulging who had modelled for Girl With A Dolphin. But, in November 2023 Virginia Wade revealed she was the naked model, although the head of the girl was obviously not hers.

One other, rather clever, piece by Wynne can be seen in the NPG, a bust of conductor Thomas Beecham (28).

The Portrait Restaurant

It's not cheap; but the food is delicious. Booking is essential. There's a nice view of Nelson atop his column with Westminster in the distance. I'm baffled by the white, yellow and black flag. It's roughly where the Malaysian Tourist office is in Trafalgar Square and initially I presumed it was the state flag of Perak. But the colours are in the wrong order - black should be at the bottom. No, I'm not a closet vexillologist. I just happen to have relatives in Perak.

Postscript:

I was disappointed the portrait of Sir Bobby Charlton was no longer on show, especially as he'd died a couple of weeks before my visit. I particularly like the fact he is sitting on an armchair very similar to the one my parents had for as long as I could remember. I contacted the NPG asking why the picture hadn't been put on show in memory of the great Englishman and had a nice exchange of emails explaining in detail how that sort of thing takes time. With that in mind I suggested they leave any aging national treasures in situ and was pleased to find David Attenborough (b 1926), Judi Dench (b 1934) and David Hockney (b 1937) are there already. But no Michael Caine (b 1933)?

Update: Sir Bobby Charlton is back (summer 2024). I'd like to think I had something to do with it - and especially happy as I worked with him a couple of times - lovely man.

Finally .....

One of the most familiar artworks of all time is in the NPG collection but not currently on show. There are over 32 million copies - click here to reveal. Unfortunately the 'Where's Wally' routine doesn't work here. But the full line-up is here on Wikipedia.

ROOM BY ROOM INDEX:
1. Henry VIII, Elizabeth I
3. William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, Duke of Wellington
4. Charles I, Anthony van Dyck
6. Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Pepys, Charles II, Nell Gwyn
9. Christopher Wren, Isaac Newton, William Hogarth
10. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin
12. House of Commons 1883
15. Queen Victoria
16. Charles Babbage, Michael Faraday, Humphry Davy, James Watt
17. Lord Byron, George Bradshaw, John Constable, J.M.W.Turner
18. Mai (Omai), Joshua Reynolds, Emma Hamilton, Lord Nelson, Kitty Fisher, George Frideric Handel, George Stubbs
19. George V and family, Beatrix Potter, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Darwin, John Logie Baird, Florence Nightingale, Winston Churchill

20. Ada Lovelace
21. The Brontë Sisters, Charles Dickens, Isambard Kingdom Brunel
22. Alfred Lord Tennyson
23. Queen Victoria carving
24. Oscar Wilde, Constance Lloyd, Christabel Pankhurst
25. Agatha Christie, T.E. Lawrence, Emmeline Pankhurst
26. Lucian Freud,
27. Alan Turing, Alexander Fleming, Erno Goldfinger, Mahatma Gandhi
28. Princess Diana, Tim Berners-Lee, Winston Churchill, David Attenborough, Elton John, George Michael, Annie Lennox, Virginia Wade, Thomas Beecham
29. Sylvia Pankhurst
30. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, David Hockney, Raqib Shaw, Judi Dench, The Beatles, David Beckham, Malala Yousafzai

32. Marc Quinn
33. Charles III, Prince William, Ed Sheeran
Entrance Hall: Nelson Mandela
Top of escalator: Anthony Gormley

David Hockney Drawing from Life, January 2024 ....