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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.

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Activities posts

La Fiamma: Keeping the Flame of Baroness Catherine d’Erlanger Alive

After celebrating the centenary of female suffrage in 2018, an increased number of female artists have appeared in the exhibitions schedules of several art museums. Behind the scenes, researchers are also doing their part to redress the gender imbalance in the art world by uncovering the lives and identities of women forgotten by history.…

By Hannah Marynissen, Intern

10 October 2019

Shaped with light: Silhouettes and photography on display and in the archives

Our recent display Photography: A Living Art – Then and Now, explored the relationship between historical and contemporary photographs from the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection. Recently acquired tintypes by Joni Sternbach and photograms by Adam Fuss and Christopher Bucklow are shown alongside seaside souvenir tintypes from the 1870s and portraits by the twentieth-century photographic masters André Kertész and Cecil Beaton.…

By Constantia Nicolaides, Assistant Curator, Photographs (Content and Interpretation)

23 September 2019

Jane Seymour

New acquisitions in the sixteenth-century collection are relatively infrequent, so I was thrilled when the opportunity to purchase a portrait of Jane Seymour arose. …

By Charlotte Bolland, Senior Curator, Research and 16th Century Collections

23 August 2019

Peterloo 1819: Democracy, Protest and Justice

On 16 August 1819 – two hundred years ago today – 60,000 peaceful protestors gathered at St Peter’s Field in Manchester to demand the right to vote for all men. At the time only 2% of Britain’s population could vote and many industrial towns, including Manchester, had no representation in Parliament.…

By Georgia Haseldine, Collaborative Doctoral Award Student

16 August 2019

Cindy Sherman

Sherman is famous for her use of make-up, costumes, props and prosthetics to create complex and ambiguous photographic images. She invents fictitious characters, photographing herself in imaginary situations, inhabiting a world of pure appearance.…

By National Portrait Gallery,

20 June 2019

Conserving the Frame for Jonathan Swift by Rupert Barber

This eighteenth-century framed portrait was acquired by the Gallery in 2013. The overall condition and visual appearance of the frame at the time of acquisition were poor due to several deteriorated restorations.…

By Claire Irvine, Frame Conservator

14 May 2019