Search results for ""National Portrait Gallery""

National Portrait Gallery: The Collection introduces the key people who have shaped the history of Britain, its culture and identity, by exploring essential highlights from the National Portrait Gallery’s unrivalled Collection. National Portrait Gallery: The Collection is published to celebrate the reopening of the Gallery after a three-year redevelopment project. Designed by Daniela Rocha, this engaging and inviting book takes the reader on a chronological journey through Britain’s history in portraiture, from the Tudors to Now, featuring the country’s most impactful and famous individuals, from Queen Elizabeth I to Mary Seacole, and Virginia Woolf to David Bowie. The book is richly illustrated with beautiful paintings, photographs, sculptures, drawings and digital works. Readers will enjoy a selection of the most popular and recognisable portraits from the Collection, accompanied by short chapter introductions that introduce key historical periods, their most exciting figures, and their most important historical, political, social and cultural moments. This accessible structure allows the reader to dip into any of the beautiful portraits and their stories, and understand their place in British history. An Introduction by Director Dr. Nicholas Cullinan will highlight why portraiture has been fundamental to people and society historically, but also to contemporary audiences, by exploring themes of culture, identity and the representation of diversity. This will also introduce readers to the nation’s newly-reopened National Portrait Gallery, explaining how it came to be the nation’s home of portraits and the world’s most significant Collection of people.

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A fun and easy-to-set-up game for ages 14 and up, where players answer trivia questions about art history and collect artwork from the National Portrait Gallery along the way. Be the first to collect five artworks and prove, officially, that you know your stuff. Players who answer trivia correctly exchange their Trivia Cards for Artwork Cards. Get enough Artwork Cards and you win the game! Players can also use Rogue Scholar Cards to help them answer questions, protect their artwork from getting stolen, and sabotage other players. Funny, and at times playfully irreverent and a little absurd, this game dispels the myth that art and art history are only for stuffy intellectuals. It''s welcoming for all players, from those PhD holders to curious high schoolers just starting to learn about the classics.For four to six players.

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The National Portrait Gallery holds the world’s most extensive collection of portraits: a museum of people, a gallery of stories and ideas, and a home of artistic masterpieces. It celebrates the power and creativity of individuals – artists as well as their sitters. Icons and Identities draws upon the outstanding collections of the National Portrait Gallery to investigate and celebrate the variety and complexity of the genre. It draws together ‘icons’ – the most famous faces from British history from Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Isaac Newton to Audrey Hepburn and The Beatles – alongside less well-known sitters that provide a fascinating insight into the representation of identity in portraits. It also includes some intriguing surprises to reflect the diversity of the National Portrait Gallery’s collection and to introduce audiences around the world to exceptional portraits of many kinds. This publication will show how artists, working across a range of media including painting, photography and multimedia, have revealed the visually stimulating and intellectually vibrant tradition of portrait making. It is structured around a series of key timeless themes and each section will include a selection of works from a range of periods, allowing audiences to consider how artists and sitters have engaged with themes of power, fame, the self, innovation, identity, memory and loss.

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The 'beauties' - women of note - who were welcomed to the National Portrait Gallery's early collection were those whose lives and portraits were recognized as significant to the 'civil, ecclesiastical and literary history of the nation'. This brief was interpreted to include figures as diverse as the devout Lady Margaret Beaufort, and the entertaining Lady Emma Hamilton. History's Beauties, the first detailed study of this collection, maps a culture of femininity that reframes the Victorian fascination with women's domestic and sentimental presence by locating it within a Parliament-centred 'national' culture. Including an essay on the Gallery's Trustees, the book traces the translation of their governors' culture to a public institution through discussions of three themes in the National Portrait Gallery's collection of women's portraits: portraits of the Royal family and the cult of legitimacy in antiquities and in national identity; the educated woman as model of domestic and national cultivation; and finally the role of female beauty in defining social and artistic power in nineteenth-century Britain. The first monograph study of gender in a major museum, History's Beauties engages themes of gender, national identity, class cultures, and aesthetics in Victorian England to interpret the National Portrait Gallery's fascinating collection.

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Scotland has produced an astonishingly high number of men and women whose lives have inspired and changed the world. This book, illustrating just over forty portraits, represents only a few of them, but with Robert Burns and Walter Scott, Eric Liddell and Alex Ferguson, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Queen Victoria, it represents the flavour of the collection at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

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This richly illustrated book features an introduction by the National Portrait Gallery’s chief curator and nearly 150 insightful entries on key self-portraits in the museum’s collection. Eye to I provides readers with an overview of self-portraiture while revealing the intersections that exist between art, life, and self-representation. Drawing primarily from the museum’s collection, Eye to I explores how American artists have portrayed themselves over the past two centuries. The book shows that while each individual approaches self-portraiture under unique circumstances, all of their representations raise important questions about self-perception and self-reflection. Sometimes artists choose to reveal intimate details of their inner lives. Other times they use the genre to obfuscate their true selves or invent alter egos. Today, with the proliferation of selfies and the contemporary focus on identity, it is time to reassess the significance of the self-portrait.

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Christopher Tinker is the Managing Editor at the National Portrait Gallery, London, where he has edited Vogue 100: A Century of Style (2016), David Bailey's Stardust (2014) and Lucian Freud Portraits (2012). Before joining the Gallery he spent twelve years at BBC Books, where he edited Jeremy Paxman's The Victorians (2009), Jonathan Dimbleby's Russia (2008) and commissioned The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn (2008), a collection of early colour photographs. Simon Callow is an actor, director and writer. He has appeared in many popular films, including Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Maurice (1987), A Room with a View (1985) and Amadeus (1984). His stage work includes the one-man plays The Mystery of Charles Dickens (2012), Being Shakespeare (2011) and The Importance of Being Oscar (1997). His books include a biographical trilogy on Orson Welles, Oscar Wilde and His Circle (2013), Charles Dickens and the Theatre of the World (2012), My Life in Pieces, Charles Laughton (

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Charlotte Bolland is Senior Curator, Research and 16th Century Collections, at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Among other publications, she authored The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics (National Portrait Gallery, 2022) and Tudor and Jacobean Portraits (National Portrait Gallery, 2018), and co-authored with Tarnya Cooper The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt (National Portrait Gallery, 2017). Suzannah Lipscomb is Professor Emerita of History at the University of Roehampton and Senior Member at St Cross College, Oxford. She has written and edited seven books and is an established television presenter. She hosts the History Hit podcast, 'Not Just the Tudors'. Her next book, The Six: A New History of Henry VIII's Queens will be published in Autumn 2025. Other contributors include Nicola Clark, Brett Dolman, Alden Gregory, Benjamin Hebbert, Nicola Tallis, and Valerie Schutte.

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Charlotte Bolland is Collections Curator, Sixteenth Century, at the National Portrait Gallery, London. She has co - authored The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt (2017), The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered (2014) and Les Tudors (2015). Her other publications include contributions to Leadership and Elizabethan Culture (2013), Elizabeth I & Her People (2013) and Painting in Britain 1500 1630: Production, Influences and Patronage (2015).

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Nicholas Cullinan is Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, and curator of he Gallery's forthcoming exhibition Michael Jackson: On the Wall. He was formerly Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (201315) and Curator of International Museum Art at Tate Modern (200713), where he co-‐curated the hugely successful exhibition Henri Matisse: The Cut-‐Outs (2014). Margo Jefferson is a Pulitzer Prize-‐winning cultural critic. Her 2015 memoir, Negroland, received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. Her book On Michel Jackson was published in 2006. She has been a staff writer for the New York Times and Newsweek, and her reviews and essays have appeared in New York Magazine, Grand Street, Vogue and Harper's, among many other publications. Zadie Smith is the award-‐winning author of the novels White Teeth (2000), The Autograph Man (2002), On

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A unique collective portrait of the United Kingdom during the national lockdown of 2020. Introduction by The Duchess of Cambridge. Text by Lemn Sissay MBE. Sunday Times Bestseller. ‘Every bookcase should have this book’ ‘Beautifully heart-warming’ and ‘a keepsake for years to come’. Focused on three key themes – Helpers and Heroes, Your New Normal and Acts of Kindness, this book presents a unique portrait of the UK during the 2020 lockdown, through 100 community photographs. The net proceeds from the sale of the book will be equally split to support the work of the National Portrait Gallery and Mind, the mental health charity (registered 219830) Spearheaded by The Duchess of Cambridge, Patron of the National Portrait Gallery, Hold Still was an ambitious community project to create a unique collective portrait of the UK during lockdown. People of all ages were invited to submit a photographic portrait, taken in a six-week period during May and June 2020, focussed on three core themes – Helpers and Heroes, Your New Normal and Acts of Kindness. From these, a panel of judges selected 100 portraits, assessing the images on the emotions and experiences they conveyed. Featured here in this publication, the final 100 images present a unique and highly personal record of this extraordinary period in our history of people of all ages from across the nation. From virtual birthday parties, handmade rainbows and community clapping to brave NHS staff, resilient keyworkers and people dealing with illness, isolation and loss. The images convey humour and grief, creativity and kindness, tragedy and hope – expressing and exploring both our shared and individual experiences. Presenting a true portrait of our nation in 2020, this publication includes a foreword by The Duchess of Cambridge, each image is accompanied by the story behind the picture told through the words of the entrants, and further works show the nationwide outdoor exhibition of Hold Still.

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For far too long the male protagonists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement have dominated accounts of this revolution in British art. This book aims to redress the balance in showing just how engaged and central women were to the endeavour as the subjects of the images themselves, certainly, but also in their production. When the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (the PRB') exhibited their first works in 1849 it heralded a revolution in British art. Styling themselves the Young Painters of England' this group of young men aimed to overturn stale Victorian artistic conventions and challenge the previous generation with their startling colours and compositions. Think of the images created by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others in their circle, however, and it is not men but pale-faced young women with lustrous, tumbling locks that spring to mind, gazing soulfully from the picture frame or in dramatic scenes painted in glowing colours. Who were these women?

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Martin Parr (b.1952) is a British photographer celebrated as a chronicler of our age. His photography offers viewers the opportunity to see the world from his unique perspective, drawing on his worldwide travels as well as more familiar settings. Portraiture emerges time and again in Parr’s work, inspiring questions about how we live, present ourselves and view the world around us through his unique and characteristically entertaining photographs. This exclusive collection of postcards is beautifully illustrated with a selection of recent portraits by Parr, featuring an array both famous and anonymous faces.

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The National Portrait Gallery’s collections hold numerous portraits of creative partnerships. This book looks at the extensive collection of the Gallery and explores the role of love and the people featured both as sitters and artists. Drawing on recent scholarship, the exhibition will explore changing ideas of love, and give readers the opportunity to discover love stories both tragic and transcendent. The stories cover a variety of topics, including: the role of the muse, featuring stories such as George Romney, Lady Emma Hamilton and Nelson, and the Bloomsbury group; scandal and tragedy, exploring the relationships of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono; literary love, highlighting the tales of Mary and Percy Shelley, and Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes; a shared studio, featuring the stories of artists Lee Miller and Man Ray, and Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson; and love and the lens, which explores the stories of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and Mick and Bianca Jagger.Love Stories will be brought to life through the perspective of various authors, using material from the sitter’s own letters, diaries and poetry, while highlighting their connection and influence on some of the greatest masterpieces of art.

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The Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award is one of Britain's most prestigious art prizes, and is the leading showcase for artists throughout the world specialising in portraiture. Barbara Walker, Tom Shakespeare and Russell Tovey are among this years judging panel. The prestigious competition showcases the very best in contemporary portrait painting and is open to everyone aged eighteen and over. Since its inception over 40 years ago, the competition has attracted over 40,000 entries from more than 100 countries and over 6 million people have seen the exhibition. Alongside stunning artwork reproductions, the catalogue includes extended interviews with all prize-winning artists by journalist Richard McClure, and descriptive captions for all exhibited works by National Portrait Gallery curator Tanya Bentley, providing fascinating insight into the people and techniques behind the portraits.

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Featuring works from the 1950s onwards, this book explores Francis Bacon's deep connection to portraiture and how he challenged traditional definitions of the genre. From his responses to portraiture by earlier artists, to large-scale paintings memorialising lost lovers, works from private and public collections will showcase Bacon's life story. As well as the artist's self-portraits, sitters include Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne and lovers Peter Lacy and George Dyer. The first publication in over 20 years dedicated to the portraits of Francis Bacon, this book accompanies the exhibition of the same name opening at the National Portrait Gallery, London, in October 2024. From his renowned triptychs and paintings of ghostly figures, to tender and psychologically revealing individual portraits, the figurative works displayed in this publication chart the development of a groundbreaking artist, highlighting the influence of his peers and other artists. Edited and with introductory text

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With just under a thousand portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, the National Portrait Gallery boasts some of the most treasured and famous official portraits of the Queen captured at key historic moments, as well as day-to-day images of the monarch at home and with family, following her journey from childhood, to princess and Queen, mother and grandmother. This publication highlights the most important portraits of Elizabeth II from the Gallery’s Collection. Paintings and photographs from the birth of Elizabeth II to the present will take readers on a visual journey through the life of Britain’s foremost icon. The book will reflect on the Queen’s life, presenting family photographs alongside important formal portraits to explore how, as her reign became record-breaking, she became an iconic figure in modern British culture and history. The publication features works by key artists depicting the Queen from 1926 to the present day, including Baron, Cecil Beaton, Dorothy Wilding, Patrick Lichfield, Andy Warhol, Annie Leibovitz and David Bailey. This book features an introductory essay by Alexandra Shulman, exploring how the collected portraits depict the Queen throughout her life and reign, and a timeline of key historical events and moments from Elizabeth II’s life.

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Accompanied by a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, in spring 2014, which will then tour to venues on four continents, this book like the exhibition, is structured thematically, with iconic images presented alongside many lesser-known and previously unseen portraits.

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Virginia Woolf’s many novels, notably Night and Day (1919), Jacob’s Room (1922), Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and The Waves (1931), transformed ideas about structure, plot and characterisation. The third child of Leslie and Julia Stephen, and sister of Vanessa (later Bell), Woolf was a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group: that union of friends who revolutionised British culture with their innovative approach to art, design and society in the early years of the twentieth century. Portraiture figured greatly in Woolf’s life. Portraits by G.F. Watts and photographs made by her aunt, Julia Margaret Cameron, furnished rooms in which she lived. Written portraits were produced in the family home; her father, Leslie Stephen, published short biographies of Samuel Johnson, Pope, Swift, George Eliot and Thomas Hobbes, while editing the first twenty-six volumes of the Dictionary of National Biography. Throughout her life, Woolf, a sharp observer and a brilliant wordsmith, composed memorable vignettes-in-words of people she knew or encountered, and was herself portrayed by artists and photographers on many occasions. Illustrated with over a hundred works from public and private collections, documentary photographs and extracts from her writings, this book catches Woolf’s appearance and that of the world around her. It also points to her pursuit of the hidden, the fleeting and the obscure, in her desire to understand better the place and moment in time and in history in which she lived. In charting some of the milestones in Woolf’s life, author Frances Spalding acknowledges the seen and unseen aspects of her subject; the outer and the inner, the recognisable and the concealed.

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‘I want to make a picture that could stand on its own, regardless of what it was a picture of. I’ve never been a bit interested in the fact that this was a picture of a blues musician or a street corner or something.’ – William Eggleston William Eggleston’s photographs are special for their eccentric, unexpected compositions, playfulness, implied narrative and, above all, his portrayals of people. Over the past half-­‐century he has created a powerful and enduring body of work featuring friends and family, musicians, artists and others. Eggleston frequented the 1970s Memphis club scene, developing friendships and getting to know musicians, including Ike Turner, Alex Chilton and others. His fascination with the nightclub culture resulted in the experimental video Stranded in Canton (2005), which chronicles visits to bars in Memphis, Mississippi, and New Orleans. At the same time he encountered and photographed the likes of Dennis Hopper, Eudora Welty and Walter Hopps – and for a brief moment Eggleston even entered the Warhol Factory scene, dating the Warhol protégé, Viva. William Eggleston: Portraits accompanies the first exhibition to explore Eggleston’s pictures of people. Works included span his career from the 1950s through to his well-­‐known portraits of the 1970s to the present day. The catalogue includes an essay, chronology and beautifully reproduced exhibition plates, as well as a series of revealing interviews with Eggleston and his close family members, conducted in Memphis by exhibition curator Phillip Prodger.

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Experience iconic works from the National Portrait Gallery's Collection and the cocktails inspired by the collection, in the menu for the Gallery's award-winning underground speakeasy Larry's, by the Daisy Green Collection. From the regal gin cocktail The Cecil Beaton' to the experimental, colourful CMYK Fizz' inspired by Yevonde, and the award-winning dirty martini McBean cocktail. These fabulous cocktails evoke bygone eras and the creative spirit of London's West End which is known for its hub of creativity and pioneering jazz scene. This beautiful hardback publication begins with an introduction to Larry's Bar and the story of its namesake, the actor Sir Laurence Olivier. It then showcases each of Larry's bespoke cocktails, telling the stories behind their inspiration, ingredients and design. Each story is illustrated with images of each drink and portraits of iconic figures ranging from Audrey Hepburn to Francis Bacon from the National Portrait Gallery's Collection.

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Explore 500 years of the British royal family and how their portrayal has developed throughout the ages through beautiful artworks from the National Portrait Gallery's Collection. The Royals: Tudors to Windsors features some of the earliest works in the National Portrait Gallery's Collection alongside their most recent acquisitions. This beautiful publication includes a timeline of key events and is illustrated through photographs and paintings of the British royal family, from King Henry VIII to King Charles III. Discover how the monarchy have positioned themselves within images of strength, domesticity and love; from traditional paintings by Nicholas Hilliard and Joshua Reynolds, to modern-day photographs by Dorothy Wilding and Nadav Kander. An introduction by Rab MacGibbon explains the history of the British royal family and their continued relevance today. The Royals is a chronological, highly-illustrated book. Showcasing the Gallery's collection of royal portraiture, works are a

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‘A delightful introduction to an enduring subject’ – Angela Wintle, Sussex Life The most constructive and creative influence on English taste between the two wars, 'The Bloomsbury Group' was a union of friends who transformed British culture with their approach to art, design and society.The Group began the twentieth century with a desire to rebel and challenge what they felt were the religious, artistic, social and sexual taboos of Victorian England. Together they created a revolution in British style that resonates with contemporary painters, writers, actors, designers, fashion editors and publishers. This book explores the impact of Bloomsbury personalities on each other, as well as their legacy to the twenty-first century. Author Frances Spalding demonstrates how this network of artists, lovers and patrons recorded one another obsessively in both words and images. She presents twenty fascinating biographies, all of which are illustrated with paintings and intimate photographs created by members of the Group. Highlighted in her revealing account are: Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Vanessa and Clive Bell, Duncan Grant, Lady Ottoline Morrell, Roger Fry, J.M. Keynes, Lytton Strachey and Dora Carrington.

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First World War Poets by Alan Judd and David Crane. This collection of short biographies of those remarkable men who sought to record and convey the horrors of the Great War in poetry draws on letters, memoirs and portraits in a variety of media. Key poems by each of the poets are reproduced in full, and familiar images of Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are presented along with the haunting faces of lesser-known poets such as Isaac Rosenberg and Ivor Gurney to provide a new approach to one of the most devastating events of the last century. Published to coincide with the centenary of the start of the Great War.

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Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In draws parallels between two of the most significant practitioners in the history of photography, presenting fresh research, rare vintage prints, and previously unseen archival works. 'I feel that photographs can either document and record reality or they can offer images as an alternative to everyday life: places for the viewer to dream in.' Francesca Woodman, 1980 Living and working over a century apart, Julia Margaret Cameron (18151879) and Francesca Woodman (19581981) experienced very different ways of making and understanding photographs. Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In accompanies the exhibition of the same name opening at the National Portrait Gallery, London, in March 2024. Spanning the careers of both artists, the beautifully illustrated catalogue includes their best-known photographs as well as less familiar images. The exhibition works are arranged into eight thematic

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The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize showcases a wide range of portraits from inspiring contemporary photographers. The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize is one of the most prestigious global photography awards, celebrating the very best in contemporary portraiture. Exhibited annually at the National Portrait Gallery, London, it showcases talented professional and amateur photographers from around the world, and this year features new work from the 2023 In Focus Photographer Hassan Hajjaj, as well as the newly introduced Commission Prize. Fully illustrated in colour throughout, it includes interviews with all prize-winning photographers, alongside extended captions for each exhibited work and insights from the judges. This book provides a unique opportunity to see an inspiring range of portraits from contemporary photographers selected from thousands of submissions. An in-depth interview with this year’s celebrated In Focus Photographer, Hassan Hajjaj, showcases his vibrant, expressive portraits, which embrace diverse cultural influences and reflect on his life between Britain and Morocco.

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The National Portrait Gallery, London, holds a large collection of portraits featuring sitters who have played an important role in British history and culture across the periods, many of which have also made significant contributions as writers. 100 Writers will be the first Gallery publication to bring together portraits of writers from varied disciplines and periods into one publication. An illustrated introductory text will explore the range of writers' portraits held in the Gallery and the important role they have played in British culture. It will also look at the relationship between the written word and visual arts, encompassing the variety of writers and themes. This new title will include earlier sixteenth-century works through to contemporary portraits, with a focus on writers who have made an important contribution to a number of areas such as literature, history, philosophy and politics. Select works will also be accompanied by quotations taken from interviews, essays and

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'Yevonde’s ’30s portraits of high-society beauties and Hollywood stars are finally getting the attention they deserve.' - British Vogue 'Yevonde: Life and Colour opens at the revamped National Portrait Gallery ... and will feature a comprehensive selection of works dreamed up by this brilliant artist across a 60-year-career. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more joyful show anywhere in the country.' - Jennifer Higgie, The Telegraph ‘Be original or die would be a good motto for photographers to adopt…let them put life and colour into their work.’ - Yevonde. ---------- Yevonde (1893–1975) was a businesswoman and tireless creator, as an innovator committed to colour photography when it was not considered a serious medium, her work is significant in the history of British portrait photography. Yevonde championed photography during a time where there were few women photographers working professionally, and this book tells the story of her life, works, and 60-year career. Yevonde: Life and Colour brings the photographer’s works together again for the first time in 20 years and features previously unpublished works. This book showcases her experimentation with a range of techniques and genres including colour photography, portraiture, still-lifes, solarisation, and the Vivex colour process, and repositions her as a modern artist of the twentieth century.This highly illustrated publication provides in-depth context to Yevonde’s images, considering their aesthetic and mythic references. Yevonde’s portraits embody glorified tradition countered with a desire for the new. Her most renowned body of work is a series of women dressed as goddesses posed in surreal tableaux from the 1930s.

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The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure edited by Ekow Eshun celebrates flourishing Black artists whose work illuminates the richness, beauty and complexity of Black life. "There is never a time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment, the time is always now." - James Baldwin 'Angry, elegiac, critical and celebratory, The Time Is Always Now brings together 22 leading black artists working in the UK and US.' - The best art and architecture shows to visit in 2024, The Guardian The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure assembles contemporary African diasporic artists working in the UK and US whose practice foregrounds the Black figure. Edited and with texts by Ekow Eshun, and original essays by Bernardine Evaristo, Esi Edugyan and Dorothy Price. Published to coincide with the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, this publication explores and celebrates contemporary Black artists internationally who work within Black figuration. This visual and beautifully produced book examines contemporary figurative artworks against a backdrop of heightened cultural visibility. Within this context, its collected paintings, drawings and sculptures take on a dual role as the accomplished work of individual artists and as a collective assertion of Black presence. Through a three-part structure containing detailed artist profiles and stunningly reproduced artworks, the publication examines Black figuration as a means to address the absence and distortion of Black presence within Western art history. Profiled artists include Hurvin Anderson, Michael Armitage, Jordan Casteel, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Noah Davis, Godfried Donkor, Kimathi Donkor, Denzil Forrester, Lubaina Himid, Claudette Johnson, Titus Kaphar, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Chris Ofili, Jennifer Packer, Thomas J. Price, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Lorna Simpson, Amy Sherald, Henry Taylor and Barbara Walker.

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‘Excellent, full of tiny details that expand our knowledge of even the best-known Tudors’ – Lucy Davies, The Telegraph Situating the Tudor dynasty, their court, and the country, in an international context, this book will be highly illustrated and feature contemporary research in an accessible way. It will provide an overview of the ways in which the Tudors engaged with the world and were impacted by broader currents: the internationalism of court culture, religious shifts, trade, naval conflict and the expansion in the Americas. The introductory text will consider the legacies of the Tudors, as the monarchs who reigned during the tumultuous years of the Reformation and the emergence of the transatlantic slave trade and English colonialism. Taking a thematic and biographical approach, the book will feature some of the most famous royal and court figures from the sixteenth century, from Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell, to Elizabeth I and Walter Ralegh. The works shown will be explored from a multitude of perspectives, looking at the sitters’ impact at home and abroad in Europe and the Americas. The international impact of the Tudors will be very evident the portraits featured, the artists of which came from Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy. Artworks will be arranged by the key themes of: court culture, religion, queenship, conflict, empire, piracy and trade, and translation. Each theme will feature an opening text from a range of voices exploring the historical contexts of the works and new research on the topics. It will include biographical sketches of individuals whose role in Tudor history has often been overlooked, such as the trumpeter John Blanke.

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Women at Work: 1900 to Now reveals the sometimes overlooked stories of women from 1900 to the present day who have shaped history and culture in Britain and beyond. Women at Work: 1900 to Now celebrates over 100 influential and inspiring women and their achievements in fields including science, activism, photography and design. Their fascinating and sometimes untold stories are illustrated with artworks from the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection, new acquisitions and commissions supported by the CHANEL Culture Fund, and rare archival images. Sitters include Bernardine Evaristo, Margot Fonteyn, Mo Mowlam, Beatrix Potter, Zadie Smith, Amy Winehouse, Virginia Woolf and Malala Yousafzai.

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Published to celebrate Women’s History Month, this book focuses on the stories of inspirational and pioneering women whose work has changed the course of British history. Although the successes of many of these women have not been celebrated historically, this new title will shine a light on their achievements and contributions to history and culture both in Britain and, in some cases, internationally. These stories of perseverance and achievement have been grouped into four broad themes: Art & Architecture; Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM); Social Reform, Politics and Law; and Women Abroad. It features an introductory essay by Samira Ahmed as well as extended captions by Lydia Miller. The publication provides a snapshot of Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture, a three-year project supported by the CHANEL Culture Fund. This project aims to enhance the representation of women in the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection and highlight the often-overlooked stories of individual women who have shaped British history and culture. Some of the sitters featured in this book include Mary Beale, Gwen John, Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Dorothy Hodgkin, Olive Morris, Cicely Saunders and Laura Knight.

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Despite this famous protestation in a letter to his friend William Jackson, Gainsborough was clearly prepared to make an exception when it came to making portraits of his own family and himself. This book, and the major exhibition it accompanies, features a dozen portraits of his daughters Mary and Margaret, the same number of himself and his wife Margaret (though, perhaps tellingly, only one of the couple together), as well as works depicting four of his five siblings, his handsome nephew Gainsborough Dupont (who became his studio assistant) , an aunt and uncle, several in - laws and – last, but not least – his beloved dogs, Tristram and Fox. Spanning more than four decades, Gainsborough’s family portraits chart the period from the mid - 1740s, when he plied his trade in his native Suffolk , through his time in Bath ( 1758 – 74 ), when he established hi mself with a rich and fashionable clientele , to his most successful latter years at his luxuriously appointed studio in London’s We st End. Alongside this story of a provincial 18th - century artist’s rise to fame and fortune runs a more private narrative, ab out the role of portraiture in the promotion of family values, at a time when these were assuming a recogni s ably modern form. In the first of three introductory essays, David H. Solkin writes on Gainsborough himself, placing his family portraits in the context of earlier practice – including that of the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens and British portraitists from Mary Beale to Joseph Highmore . Ann Bermingham explores Gainsborough’s portraits of his daughters, with particular reference to two finished double portraits painted seven years apart and the tragic story arising from them. Susan Sloman discusses Margaret’s role as her husband’s business manager, its effect on the family dynamic and hence the visual representation of its members.

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Cecil Beaton (1904–1980) is one of the most celebrated British Portrait photographers of the twentieth century and is renowned for his images of elegance, glamour and style. His influence on portrait photography was profound and lives on today in the work of many contemporary photographers.Beaton used his camera, his ambition and his larger-than-life personality to mingle with a flamboyant and rebellious group of artists, writers, socialites and partygoers. These ‘Bright Young Things’ captured the spirit of the roaring twenties and thirties as they cut a dramatic swathe through the epoch. Beaton quickly developed a reputation for his beautiful, often striking and fantastic photographs, which culminated in his portraits of Queen Elizabeth in 1939. More than a photographer, Beaton became a society fixture in his own right. In a series of themed chapters, covering Beaton’s first self-portraits and earliest sitters to his time at Cambridge and as principle society photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, over 60 leading figures who sat for him are profiled and the dazzling parties, pageants and balls of the period are brought to life. Among this glittering cast are Beaton’s socialite sisters Baba and Nancy Beaton, Stephen Tennant, the Mitfords, Siegfried Sassoon, Evelyn Waugh and Daphne Du Maurier. Beaton’s photographs are complemented by a wide range of letters, drawings and ephemera and contextualised by artworks created by those in his circle, including Christopher Wood, Rex Whistler and Henry Lamb.

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This book provides a unique opportunity to see an inspiring range of portraits from contemporary photographers selected from thousands of submissions. The works included are not only about the sitters, but also reveal the outstanding skill of the photographers in capturing a moment in time and conveying something of the spirit of those photographed. This year’s In Focus display will be the sixth in the competition’s history, exhibiting works by Alessandra Sanguinetti, a photographer known for evocative works that focus on the fantasies and fears that accompany the physical and psychological transition from childhood to adulthood. Her works will be shown in the exhibition and a number of these are reproduced in the catalogue, accompanying an interview about the photographer’s life and work. Fully illustrated in colour throughout, the book also features all the selected entries with extended captions, comments and insights from the judges and interviews with the prizewinners.

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Charles III: The Making of a King highlights the most important portraits of King Charles III from the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection. Charles III: The Making of a King celebrates King Charles III in the year of his coronation. Follow Charles’ life from a baby, his investiture as Prince of Wales to becoming king through the National Portrait Gallery’s collection of portraits and photographs of Britain’s newest monarch. From the same publisher that brought to you Elizabeth II: Princess, Queen, Icon. The beautiful gift book includes a timeline of key events from King Charles’ life, and explores the future of the monarchy through photographs and paintings of the wider royal family, including Diana, Princess of Wales, Camilla, Queen Consort, William and Catherine, Prince and Princess of Wales, Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and Prince George of Wales. Presenting family photographs alongside important formal portraits, this book features works by key artists who have depicted the King from 1948 to the present day, such as Nadav Kander, Cecil Beaton, Marcus Adams, Lisa Sheridan, Lord Snowdon, Joan Williams, Patrick Lichfield, Norman Parkinson, Bern Schwartz, Carole Cutner, Bryan Organ, Terence Donovan, Nicola Philipps and Mario Testino.

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Russian portraiture enjoyed a golden age between the late 1860s and the First World War. While Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were publishing masterpieces such as Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov and Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov were taking Russian music to new heights, Russian art was developing a new self-confidence. The penetrating Realism of the 1870s and 1880s was later complemented by the brighter hues of Russian Impressionism and the bold, faceted forms of Symbolist painting. In providing a context, author Rosalind P. Blakesley looks in the first and second chapters at the portrait tradition in Russia: the rise of secular portrait painting following the founding of the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg in 1757; the shifting tastes of patrons and publics; the reception of portraits in exhibitions and collections (including those of the tsars); and the role of portraiture in the cultural politics of imperial Russia. Starting with the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867, at which a distinct Russian school of painting was recognised for the first time, the third chapter examines developments in theatre and music, the rising Realist aesthetic and the powerful voices of wealthy patrons from the worlds of industry and commerce, such as Pavel Tretyakov. Chapter Four looks at the rise of novel forms of visual expression through experimentation, from Impressionism to Symbolism, and the World of Art Movement, with its conscious reconnection with artistic developments in the West. The last chapter charts creative responses to political turmoil and social unrest in the early twentieth century, the new artistic societies and manifestos of the avant-garde and the dialogue between figurative painting and abstraction in the twilight of imperial rule.

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To coincide with the bicentenary of Jane Austen’s death ( and her appearance on English banknotes ) in July 2017, this illuminating account of the novelist’s life is told with particular reference to the great men and women who inspired and influenced her, and whose portraits, along with her own, are now in the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

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David Hockney: Normandy Portraits accompanies a major exhibition on David Hockney at the National Portrait Gallery, London. It reveals new portraits painted in Hockney's Normandy Studio between 2020 and 2022. David Hockney: Normandy Portraits illustrates around 40 acrylic on canvas works painted by Hockney at his Normandy studio – depicting his friends and visitors, including his partner JP, pop-star sensation Harry Styles, and the artist himself. This image-led book product will showcase a series of some previously unseen portraits, through 48 pages, uninterrupted by text, to allow readers to engage directly with the artworks that will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery as well as some added exclusives. These works highlight the ongoing importance of portraiture within the artist’s practice and demonstrate his sentiment that ‘drawings and paintings … are a lot better than photographs to give you a sense of the person’. Hockney returned to painting after an intensive period spent depicting the Normandy landscape using an iPad. The portraits were painted quickly and directly onto the canvas without under drawing. As Hockney has said ‘to do a portrait slowly is a bit of a contradiction’.

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