Visit the National Portrait Gallery

National Portrait Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London

One of my favourite things about London are the free museums and galleries. It's usually a weekly occurrence for me to pop into one for a cultural top-up. I am a regular at The National Portrait Gallery. It aims to be the foremost centre for the study of and research into portraiture. Founded in 1856, its original remit was to collect art taken of people who were born or who had lived and worked their entire life in England and who had been dead for at least ten years. When the 32yr old Roy Stone became the Director of the Gallery in 1967 he changed that to include portraits of the living, introduced photography into the gallery as well as forming innovative exhibitions such as Beaton Portraits (1968) and Samuel Pepys (1970).

Those visiting the NPG and aware of it's uniqueness expect to see something a little different from any other gallery. They expect to see something of the sitter's soul; what were they thinking? what are they doing? Different people have different reasons for having a portrait made. Historically, portrait paintings have primarily memorialised the rich and powerful and it's some of those I want to challenge with these three portraits:

King Henry VIII; King Henry VII, Hans Holbein the Younger c.1536

The image is of an overpowering figure more suited to a mythical figure than a political one. Henry VIII was a master of Public image; creating a regal image of a Renaissance man with his court being a centre of scholarly and artistic innovation and glamorous excess. Holbein the Younger became the King's painter in 1535. He produced portraits, festive decorations and unusually designs for jewellery and other precious objects. His portraits of the royal family and nobles are a record of the court in the years when Henry was asserting his supremacy over the English Church. Many people in England still couldn't read and so visual methods were the strongest way to communicate ones wealth, strength and divinity.

This cartoon is all that is left of what the mural looked like in The Whitehall Palace which burnt down in 1698. It is made of several joined sheets of paper, the figures of the kings and their faces are cut-out and pasted on to backing paper. It's the same size as the finished version and would have been used to transfer the design onto the wall, much like tracing paper. A technique called 'pouncing' was used to transfer Holbein's design onto the intended wall, charcoal dust would have been brushed into the holes made from pricking. Read more about the King Henry VIII; King Henry VII cartoon.

William Shakespeare, attributed to John Taylor c.1600s

The collection number NPG1 shows the portrait was the first in the National Portrait Gallery's collection, acquired in 1856. John Taylor was considered to be an 'ok' painter and an important member of the Painter-Stainers' Company. But it is the subject of the painting that is of English importance as it's the only one known to have been taken of the world famous bard in his lifetime. This is the only chance to set your eyes on the same portrait the bard would have seen too. Read more about the first portrait of the National Portrait Gallery.

Warren Hastings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, c.1767

The subject of this painting is the Governor of India, Warren Hastings who is acknowledged to have completed the transformation of the East India Company into a great military and naval power.  However, it is not the subject of the painting which is of the most importance. Sir Joshua Reynolds founded the Royal Academy in the same year as this portrait was painted and so is very much a painting of the time. Joshua Reynolds created the idea of celebrity, people wanted to be seen with him. He was a classical master, a devotee of the grand style (neoclassical). He practised the crib of Rafael believing new techniques had every chance to fail. Sticking to a tried and tested template was sure to benefit from political and critical success.

Blake and Turner studied directly under Reynolds. At some point, as with every teacher/pupil relationship the pupils rebel, seeking something less restrictive. Read more about this portrait.You should follow me on twitter here