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Queen Alexandra by Alexander Bassano, 5 May 1881, NPG x137324

Bassano: The Man Himself

Does the name Bassano ring a bell? For many of our visitors, the answer is probably ‘yes’. It has appeared in countless National Portrait Gallery displays over the years, features on some of our most popular greetings cards, and often pops up when searching the collection on our website. This is unsurprising considering there are more than 40,000 original negatives of numerous sitters by ‘Bassano’ in our collection, plus more than 3,000 original prints.…

By Constantia Nicolaides, Photographs Cataloguer

25 April 2013

Coco Chanel, 1935 by Man Ray Museum Ludwig Cologne, Photography Collections (Collection Gruber) © Man Ray Trust / ADAGP © Copy Photograph Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln

Man Ray Portraits: the art of dressing for the camera

I’m leading a tour of the Man Ray Portraits exhibition on 16 May themed around all things sartorial. Of course, Man Ray is the creator of iconic portraits of two of the best known designers of the twentieth century: Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli, both of which feature in the exhibition. And Man Ray worked within the industry himself for a number of years, contributing his innovative Surrealist fashion photographs to magazines including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and the lesser known Charm, as Curator Terence Pepper discusses in the exhibition catalogue. More fundamentally however, details of dress are revealed throughout the exhibition to be instrumental in creating the arresting style of photographic portraiture that Man Ray is celebrated for.…

By Inga Fraser, Assistant Curator (Contemporary & 20th Century Collections)

20 March 2013

Front cover of Vu, Issue No. 144 (17 December 1930) Private Collection

Man Ray Portraits in print – continuing research and dialogue

One of the many challenges in assembling a major exhibition on such a well-known photographer and artist as Man Ray was how best to share new research and balance the introduction of great, but lesser known works, together with great prints of his most iconic works. Similarly his published work in magazines of the 1920s and 1930s such as Vanity Fair, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar has been examined but I was fascinated to find that no survey to date had looked at in depth as his work published in the great French news weekly VU magazine. What was most exciting was that copies of Vu were still available for purchase in specialised book shops in Paris or through French ebay. Some of these have found their way into the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition showcases and the accompanying catalogue.…

By Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs

14 February 2013

Fred Daniels: New Research

The Gallery’s long interest in the life and career of British film-stills photographer Fred Daniels began in 1988, with the important acquisition of works from the photographer’s widow Nancy Eckart. In 2010, Nigel Arthur, BFI Stills Curator, was awarded a grant from the Understanding British Portraits Network to research Daniels’s work more fully, particularly with new information from his son, Jonty. Since then we have discovered many unknown studies by Daniels that were published in leading society magazines of the 1940s and 1950s.…

By Helen Trompeteler, Assistant Curator of Photographs

6 December 2012

Margarita Teichroeb, From the series Menonos, By Jordi Ruiz Cirera, September 2011

The Judges' View: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012

The great strength of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is that it brings together a wide of images, from reportage and documentary photographs to studio portraits. This year some 5,000 photographs were submitted for the competition. As chair of the selection panel, I encourage my fellow judges (this year Emma Hardy, Lauren Heinz, Glyn Morgan, Sean O’Hagan and Terence Pepper) to hold individual opinions and to argue for the works they find particularly appealing. Consensus on the final selection is always reached, but the exhibition is more diverse as a result of this debate.…

By Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery

6 November 2012

Henry, Prince of Wales, by Isaac Oliver, c. 1610-12,The Royal Collection Photo: Supplied by Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II 2012

Marilyn Monroe – the British connection
Why does her image endure?

The gallery has been offered a number of touring exhibitions commemorating the life and career of Marilyn Monroe. With the fiftieth anniversary of her death approaching we decided we would generate our own display, more appropriate for the National Portrait Gallery, celebrating the star’s British connections. Although Monroe was an American actress, she was of course, a hugely popular international star and she had been photographed in New York in 1956 by one of the most celebrated British photographers of the twentieth century, Cecil Beaton.…

By Clare Freestone, Associate Curator of Photographs

17 October 2012

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