Room 12
© Phillip Waterman

Room 4
© Phillip Waterman

Room 8
© Phillip Waterman

NEW GALLERIES

Redesigned 17th and 18th Century Galleries

The National Portrait Gallery's redesigned 17th and 18th century galleries, provide improved access to some of the country's finest portraits. Charles I, Nell Gwyn, Samuel Pepys and Bonnie Prince Charlie are among the portraits to have a new home in rooms specially designed to display the Gallery's important 17th and 18th century collections.

Architects Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones and design consultant David Mlinaric of Mlinaric, Henry and Zervudachi Ltd have created an atmospheric, subtle scheme for the galleries in the original 19th century Gallery building. The redesign uncovers many features hidden by previous building works. Original cornices have been revealed and natural daylight restored to four of the galleries.

Jacob Simon, the Gallery's 18th century curator, comments:
'The new galleries respect the integrity of the 19th century building, whilst providing for the needs of the Gallery and its visitors in the 21st century. This exciting opportunity has allowed us to show many of the Gallery's finest portraits in a splendid new setting.'

Historic English fabrics have been commissioned from The Humphries Weaving Company and Stuart Renaissance Textiles, using a complementary palette of colours ranging from a rich green to grey/steel blue. The fabrics include faithful reproductions of 17th and 18th patterns drawn from the Bath Museum of Costume, the Victoria & Albert Museum and Hampton Court Palace. The main stair landing has been newly restored to its original appearance, creating a double-height space, with a marble mosaic floor, wrought iron balustrade and a striking colour scheme of deep Etruscan red.

The movement of the Tudor paintings into the Gallery's new building creates more space in the original building, thus allowing for a gallery to be added to the 17th and 18th century rooms. The new gallery will hold changing exhibitions of rarely seen prints and drawings from the Gallery's large collection of portrait drawings.

The redesigned galleries link to the Ondaatje Wing, the Gallery's millennium development. The new building (which opened on 4 May 2000) includes a two-storey escalator that takes visitors straight from the new entrance foyer to the earliest part of the collection housed in a new Tudor Gallery.

Portraits on display

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All images and text are subject to copyright protection. 20 November 2008