✖

The Gallery holds the most extensive collection of portraits in the world. Search over 215,000 works, 150,000 of which are illustrated from the 16th Century to the present day.

Blog

Archived posts

eather and silk embroidered gloves, The Glove Collection Trust, Courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath and North East Somerset Council

Should We Remember The Fifth Of November?

The festivities of Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night give this time of year a distinctly macabre feel. Children dressed as ghouls and the spectacle of the Guy being thrown on to the bonfire are surreal interruptions to the normal routines of our lives. But this year, the sense of disquiet that they may evoke has become a regular feature of my work.…

By Rab MacGibbon, Associate Curator

30 October 2013

You Can Be a Literary Patron – For Free

I’m going to be the writer in residence at Late Shift Extra: The Elizabethans Undressed on Friday 25 October, writing live and to order while every word is projected on the wall of the Main Hall. I’ll take requests from visitors face-to-face, but also via the web – where you’ll be able to watch my creative struggles in real time.…

By David Varela, Writer In Residence at Late Shift Extra

24 October 2013

eather and silk embroidered gloves, The Glove Collection Trust, Courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath and North East Somerset Council

Elizabeth I installation

This week we have been installing the exhibition Elizabeth I and Her People, but not long ago I came across a fascinating manuscript in the collections of the National Archives that lists the contents of an Elizabethan haberdasher’s London warehouse from 1582. The haberdasher was William Gynn and he was being sued for a debt of a hundred pounds, and so an inventory was made of some of his goods.…

By Dr. Tarnya Cooper, Curatorial Director

09 October 2013

Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses, attrib. Isaac Oliver, c. 1590. (c) National Portrait Gallery, London, Purchased with the support of Mark Weiss

Discovering Diallo with Ben Okri

One of the things I find most rewarding about being a curator is seeing objects through other people’s eyes. This came home to me when looking at William Hoare’s portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo with the Booker-prize-winning writer Ben Okri. …

By Lucy Peltz, Head of Collection Displays (Tudor to Regency) and Senior Curator 18th Century Collections

02 October 2013