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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Forthcoming titles

Drawing from life Exhibition Catalogue

David Hockney: Drawing from Life

This book, which accompanies the first major exhibition devoted to David Hockney’s drawings in over 20 years, will explore Hockney as a draughtsman from the 1950s to now, with a focus on himself, his family and friends.

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Photgraph of Baba Beaton by photographer Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things

Accompanying a major new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, this book celebrates the portraits by renowned British photographer Cecil Beaton of the ‘Bright Young Things’ who flourished between the two World Wars.

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Drawing of Sheila, Lady Loughborough by photographer Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton’s Cocktail Book

Accompanying a major new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, this souvenir book features a dazzling array of cocktail recipes inspired by the glittering friends, acquaintances and sitters of famed British photographer Cecil Beaton in the 1920s and 30s, illustrated with Beaton’s own witty and distinctive drawings which featured in Vogue.

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