Home to the most extensive collection of portraits in the world:
Large windows, now unveiled, welcome in the natural light; pale masters and bemused mistresses engage in clever 18c conversation; muscular rock stars gyrate on brilliantly printed black-and-white archival paper, and a better-late-than-never mural honours 130 overlooked women from Britain’s past. There is more, much more hung on walls now freshly and bravely painted, not in the ubiquitous non-shade of ‘gallery white’, but with a palette of the deepest richest colour.
The National Portrait Gallery, completely refashioned, renovated, and renewed after a lengthy three-year closure, truly carries out its original 1856 foundational intent: ‘to promote through the medium of portraits the appreciation and understanding of the men and women who have made and are making British history and culture, and … to promote the appreciation and understanding of portraiture in all media’. How could they have foreseen the multi-media array of portraits on view now in the 21c? One can say that their original mission as stated in the mid-19c has at last, been fully and brilliantly accomplished!
Please join Nicholas for a gentle morning stroll through the Gallery discussing the refurbishment, the rehang, and the heroes and heroines of British history, with optional lunch in a nearby Italian restaurant.
Just as the National Portrait Gallery has been revolutionised, so there may come about a revolution in our perception of British art and its subjects. Reviewers are divided, often writing different points of view in articles for the same publisher – while Jonathan Jones of the Guardian sees the rehang as little more than a rehash of often second-rate pictures (I think he was having a bad day), Laura Cumming of the Observer sees that ‘The National Portrait Gallery has come alive, after three years of closure and many more of shadows and stasis.…You could spend days here, in this spectacular building, with its cobalt and vermilion walls and more than 1,000 exhibits, and come away every time with a new understanding of British history, life and art.’
You enter the building wonderfully, no longer squeezing through an apologetic side entrance, but in the very centre of Ewan Christian’s splendid 1890s Renaissance façade. It is as if the entire Charing Cross Road has been designed to funnel its pedestrians from the arid north into this fertile and inspiring world, its entry point guarded by the statue of Sir Henry Irving, bracketed by the Garrick Theatre on one side and the Cass Art Supply Store on the other. The new entrance has bronze doors incised with images of women by that arresting modern draughtswoman Tracey Emin. Rowan Moore, the architecture critic acclaims the details of the newly-equipped, freshly-lit building: ‘(the architect) Fobert has designed elegant purpose-built seats with sinuous armrests, so that it’s easy to lift yourself out of them. He also complements the mosaic floors that Ewan Christian (the original architect of the building) put in the circulation spaces with modern versions, where small squares of marble are placed in slightly irregular rows, like ordered falls of mineral blossom.……Nissen Richards has implemented a punchy colour scheme of blue, red, green and purple that make the galleries into sequences of energised drawing rooms.’
There’s a gallery full of ‘Rebel Women’; a near-democracy of servants appearing next to mistresses and raw recruits beside generals with long range vistas commanded by great works such as Reynolds’ Mai, the Polynesian, or by Dame Laura Knight’s magnificent declamatory self-portrait in reds.
What will you think?
We offer a study morning as a gentle walking discussion, face to face with one another as well as with our nation’s great and not so great, the good and perhaps the not so good, before repairing for an optional light lunch nearby and more stimulating talk.
Do join us! We regret that the size of our group must be limited to 14. £75 per Member
Booking Information
On receipt of your payment we will send you an information sheet, requesting details of travel, room, dietary requirements etc to be filled out and returned to Henrietta in the stamped addressed envelope we will provide.
Due to the coronavirus cheques are not a viable option at this time. Instead, please make your payment to Friend&Friend Ltd by bank transfer to our account with Metrobank, bank sort code 23-05-80, account number 13291721 or via PayPal to nicholas@inscapetours.co.uk, or credit/debit card by phone to Henrietta on 07940 719397. She is available Tuesdays 10-12 and 2-5 pm or Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5 pm.
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