Drawing Portraits



The Gallery’s growing collection of works on paper made since 1990 reflects a revival of interest in drawing among contemporary artists, who are attracted to its immediacy and range; drawings can be simple doodles or highly-finished works of art. Most of the works in this display are intended as portraits complete in themselves, and not as studies for more ‘finished’ paintings, reflected in the informal presentation of some of the sitters. They embrace a range of media including pencil, watercolour and etching.

Two of Britain’s most renowned draughtsmen, David Hockney and Frank Auerbach, are represented alongside younger artists, including Stuart Pearson-Wright. This display also includes four new acquisitions; two large conté pencil drawings of the writers Michael Holroyd and Sebastian Faulks by Matthew Carr, and portraits of the actor Antony Sher by Andrew Ratcliffe and the late philosopher Peter Strawson by Ishbel Myerscough; both works in pencil demonstrate the particular intimacy of portrait drawing.