P.D. James
© National Portrait Gallery, London
P.D. James
by Michael Taylor
oil on canvas, 1996
33 7/8 in. x 41 3/4 in. (860 mm x 1060 mm)
Commissioned, 1996
Primary Collection
NPG 6361
Sitterback to top
- Phyllis Dorothy ('P.D.') James, Baroness James of Holland Park (1920-2014), Writer and public servant. Sitter in 9 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Michael Taylor (1952-), Painter. Artist or producer of 4 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Flavia Frigeri, Women At Work: 1900 to Now, 2023, p. 167
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 333
Subjects & Themesback to top
Events of 1996back to top
Current affairs
The largest ever IRA bomb is detonated in Manchester causing the destruction of many buildings and over 200 injuries. Nobody died in the incident because a warning was given and the area evacuated. After the bombing much of Manchester was rebuild and in 1998 it won a successful bid to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games.Prince Charles and Princess Diana finalise their divorce after four years of separation.
Art and science
The Spice Girls enjoy massive popular success with their first single Wannabe going straight to Number 1. The group are remembered as much for their sassy, outspoken 'girl power' attitude and their continuing subsequent celebrity as for their music.Danny Boyle tells the story of a group of Edinburgh heroin addicts in his critically acclaimed film version of Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting.
International
The First Chechnya War breaks out between Chechnya and Russia when Russian forces invade the country in support of Chechnyan opposition to the government. The invasion went badly with strong Chechnyan resistance and dissent in the Russian command. However, a truce was finally established after Russia seized the capital Grozny. More than 46,000 people died as a result of the conflict.Comments back to top
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Patsy Shepherd
30 January 2017, 16:18
From "Time to Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography," by P.D. James:
"I did ask him [the artist Michael Taylor] during a break [in thesitting] if he was intending to make me look sinister or mysterious, to which he replied, 'I have enough problems putting down what I see without trying to see something else.' He has put down precisely what he saw: an elderly much-lined woman with, I suppose, a certain authority. It is the painting of a seventy-five-year-old by someone still young, and is literally wart and all. It is a powerful painting which I much admire and, like all powerful paintings, provokes controversy. Some of my friends complain that it verges on caricature, but no one says it isn't like me." (P. 146 of the large print edition, Thorndike Press, 2000)