These last few weeks I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) prepping for a tour for a small group. And the more I’ve been there, the more I like the place.
This was the world’s first portrait gallery, opening in 1856 and the first item in the collection – “NPG1” – was the Chandos portrait which is believed to be William Shakespeare. (NPG2 is of the painter Thomas Stothard, NPG3 the MP and reformer William Wilberforce, and NPG4 the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated, Spencer Perceval.)
Although dedicated to portraiture, the trustees were emphatic in stating that the criterion for admission into the collection was the “celebrity of the person represented rather than … the merit of the artist”. Go to the National Gallery or Tate Britain and one can see some wonderful portraits, but many of them would not make the cut for the NPG because the sitters don’t have the status.
That means that as one wanders around the NPG one is strolling through British history, as represented by the characters that shaped it, or who were shaped by it. There is a solid collection of monarchs and aristocrats, but there are scientists and painters, sportspeople and poets, musicians and politicians, in fact the whole spectrum of people that weave the colours through what we might call Britishness.
The gallery recently underwent a huge refurbishment, changing how you go in to the building from what always seemed like a side door to a large entrance that fronts onto Charing Cross Road (see image above), and having a thorough rehang. The collection is vast – over 4,000 paintings and 220,000 photographs – so the curation of the images on display, in the gallery’s own words, “represents a constantly evolving picture of the nation, how we view ourselves and who we choose to remember“.
That word ‘choose’ is important. When I went to the NPG ten years or so ago there were lots of portraits of Victorian men with beards, rows of (male) politicians, and rooms full of black and white photos of forgotten empire builders. This has changed – for the better – reflecting how our society has changed – for the better. There are more women and people of colour (although with the limitation that the further back in history one goes the less either were regarded – royalty excepted – as being ‘worthy’ of representation).
Other changes are to the building itself. As well as the new entrance the lobby is open and inviting, the lighting in the galleries is better, the cafe has been moved from the basement to the ground floor (although I did like the old location, which also had a better lunchtime menu).
Some (mild) criticisms: the descriptive captions by the artworks seem light on detail, and using the Bloomberg ‘Arts and Culture’ app doesn’t provide a great deal more information about the works, and there are few out and out ‘villains’ from our history; if we’re going to have a gallery that represents British history it should be warts and all, with captions that tell us why the subjects were celebrated then, but are regarded negatively now.
Personal favourites in the gallery include John Collier’s portrait of Charles Darwin, painted the year before the naturalist’s death; John Everett Millais’ picture of the artist Louise Jopling; Gerald Brockhurst’s 1939 portrait of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor; and Sargent’s Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.
The NPG is open every day from 1030-1800 (2130 on Fridays and Saturdays), and is free. They have had a run of great temporary (and paid for) exhibitions recently as well.
(And if you’d like a private tour – an illustrated walk through British history – just get in touch.)
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