Discover significant anniversaries relating to the sitters and artists in the National Portrait Gallery’s collections.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
by Ian Homer Walters, 2008, based on a work of 2001, NPG 6868
2018 marks 100 years since the birth of Mandela, on 18 July 1918. He was named Rolihlahla at birth, and given the name Nelson by his first teacher at school. In South Africa, he was widely known as ‘Madiba’, his Xhosa clan name.
Also in 1918
Constance Markievicz becomes the first female MP to be elected to the House of Commons in the UK. As a member of Sinn Féin, she chooses not to take her seat.
Mervyn Laurence Peake
by Mervyn Laurence Peake, 1932, NPG L191
2018 marks 50 years since the death of Mervyn Peake. Peake was fifty-seven when he died of Parkinson’s disease, leaving a wealth of unpublished material.
Also in 1968
The last British Rail steam train service runs from Liverpool to Carlisle.
Isaac Rosenberg
by Isaac Rosenberg, 1915, NPG 4129
2018 marks 100 years since the death of Isaac Rosenberg, while fighting on the western front. His remains were buried in an unmarked grave and discovered eight years later. They were reinterred under a headstone in the Bailleul Road east cemetery at Flanders.
Also in 1918
The US constitution passes a temporary
Prohibition Act, banning the sale of
alcoholic beverages.
Emily Brontë
by Patrick Branwell Brontë, circa 1833, NPG 1724
2018 marks 200 years since the birth of Emily Brontë in 1818. Brontë was born at the parsonage in Market Street, Thornton, near Bradford. She was the fifth of six children of the Reverend Patrick Brontë and his wife Maria.
Also in 1818
Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is published anonymously in London.
Warren Hastings
by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1766-1768, NPG 4445
2018 marks 200 years since the death of Warren Hastings in 1818. Hastings was buried at Daylesford in Gloucestershire where he had spent his retirement. His wife had a monument to him erected in Westminster Abbey.
Also in 1818
Dr James Blundell carries out the first successful blood transfusion using human blood.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
by Richard Rothwell, 1840, NPG 1235
2018 marks 200 years since the publication of Mary Shelley’s celebrated gothic novel Frankenstein. The book was written when Shelley was only eighteen and published anonymously. Most early reviewers assumed it had been written by a man.
Also in 1818
Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, dies at Kew Palace.
Laurence Sterne
by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1760, NPG 5019
2018 marks 250 years since the death of Laurence Sterne in 1768. The night after burial, his body was stolen and sent to Cambridge for dissection by medical students. It is said that the Professor of Anatomy recognised Sterne and sent the body to be reburied.
Also in 1768
Captain James Cook’s first expedition on the Endeavour departs from Plymouth, bound for the Pacific Ocean.
Sir Peter Lely
by Sir Peter Lely, circa 1660, NPG 3897
2018 marks 400 years since the birth of Peter Lely in Soest, Westphalia (in modern Germany) in 1618. His family’s name was van der Faes and Lely was a name he adopted based on the carved decoration of a lily (lelye) on a property they owned.
Also in 1618
Writer and explorer Sir Walter Ralegh is executed.
Sir Walter Ralegh
by Sir Peter Lely, circa 1660, NPG 7
2018 marks 400 years since the death of Sir Walter Ralegh in 1618. Ralegh was executed for treason on the orders of James I. Before being beheaded, he joked with the executioner that the axe was ‘a sharp Medicine … a Physitian for all Diseases’..
Also in 1618
The Second Defenestration of Prague triggers the Thirty Years War.
Agostino Carlini; Francesco Bartolozzi; Giovanni Battista Cipriani
by John Francis Rigaud, 1777, NPG 3186
2018 marks 250 years since the founding of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. The thirty-four founding members hoped to raise the status of the artist, provide artistic training and a public exhibition space for contemporary art. These remain features of the Academy today.
Also in 1768
The world’s first modern circus is staged in London.