Add a review about the National Portrait Gallery of London

The National Portrait Gallery - one of the most interesting museums in London. It is part of the National Gallery and exhibits, as it follows from the name, only portraits.

The history of the creation

This gallery was created in the middle of the 19th century by three patrons, and at the time of its opening in 1856 it was the first portrait gallery in world. Most of the exhibits were portraits from the personal collections of the founders and gifts from their acquaintances, who liked the undertaking. The first exhibit was the famous portrait of Shakespeare - The Chandos portrait, one of the lifetime portraits of the great playwright.

Here is not only one of the two most likely lifetime portraits of Shakespeare, but also the only lifetime portrait of Jane Austen (amateur, written by her sister) the only lifetime portrait of the Bronte sisters - Charlotte (the one who wrote the book "Jane Eyre"), Anna and Emily (also an amateur written by their brother) and much more.

The exhibition changed several buildings until at last another large donation in 1896 was erected a new permanent building attached to the already existing building of the National Gallery. Managed the gallery specially created for this charity fund, which exists until now and which included at different times many famous politicians, writers and artists.

Exposition

The main principle of the collection is the importance of not the artist, but the person portrayed in the portrait. Therefore, there are a number of amateur portraits - not all in a row, but only those that are something unique. Before the Second World War, drawing education was a mandatory program for the education of all affluent layers of the population (and especially female education), so there are a lot of old amateur paintings in Britain.

The National Portrait Gallery exhibits portraits of "significant for the country or famous Britons" (c) - only the British. Accordingly, representatives of other nations are not there, but the history, culture and art of Britain are given in the fullest possible extent - all spheres of life. The author of the picture could have been anyone, but the overwhelming majority of portraits were intravital and written "from nature" - that is, from a posing person. Also there are still photos, caricatures, sketches and sculptures.

In the collection you can find all the English writers, artists, scientists and composers over the past two hundred years, most English monarchs, almost all the famous English navigators and politicians and many others.

Here is one of the two most probable intravital portraits of Shakespeare (if, of course, the person portrayed in the portrait is Shakespeare, which, given the dust raised around the authorship of his works, is not at all fact), the only lifetime portrait of Jane Austen (an amateur written by her sister) is one (the very one who wrote the book "Jane Eyre"), Anna and Emily (also an amateur written by their brother), and much else . Here you can see the familiar portraits of Charles Dickens, familiar to us all in school books or Oliver Cromwell, a photo of Alice Liddell, once owned by Lewis Carroll (it was for her that the book "Alice in Wonderland" was written), self-portraits of Hogarth and Reynolds and much more .

Portrait Gallery

A separate part exhibitions - historical photographs. The same theme, often the same people - at different moments, at different ages, etc.

Also there are always some temporary exhibitions always related to portraits: photos, pictures, sketches, cartoons, something else , and exhibitions are always very good. They are sometimes paid, cost from 10 GBP and above (price for spring 2014)

This is an interesting, unusual museum with a huge collection of unique portraits, where you should definitely go if you love English history.

Practical information

It's very easy to get to the National Portrait Gallery. You need to go to the building of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square - do not miss it, it's huge. The building of the portrait gallery is attached to it from the side, you just need to go around the main one.

Address: London WC2H 0HE, St Martin's Pl.

There are several metro stations nearby, the nearest is Charing Cross and Leicester Square

Gallery is open from 10:00 to 18:00, and on Thursday and Friday - to 21:00.

The entrance is free for all.