News and events archive

Derek Holdaway at the National Trust explores a miniature of Richmond Thackeray (1781-1816), probably executed by George Chinnery in India.
More

This paper discusses the painting of the courtier and writer Sir William Killigrew and the companion portrait of his wife Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew, both painted in 1638, by Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641). The pair were acquired by Tate in 2002 and 2003 from two entirely different sources.
Article

The subject of this paper is a portrait of the celebrated eighteenth-century dancer, Auguste Vestris, acquired by Tate in 1955, when it was attributed to Gainsborough Dupont, nephew of Thomas Gainsborough. The paper argues that the portrait is in fact by Gainsborough himself and, through a discussion of the context in which it was made, sheds new light on Gainsborough's close relations with the world of the London stage.
Article

Details of portrait conservation projects by Ronald Moore.
More

This exhibition displays drawings, watercolours and prints together with garments and accessories from the Museum’s collection to explore how artists have depicted motherhood, childhood and growing up. The show will cast light on changing attitudes to childhood over two hundred years and will include studies of child models, portraits of the sons and daughters of artists and examples of the clothes they wore.
More

This selection of some of the most elegant fashions for men and women shows how people have dressed to impress for all occasions from the 1770s to the 1970s. The exhibition explores ideas about clothing etiquette and aims to demonstrate how changing tastes have affected what we regard as elegant. Luxurious accessories and children's clothes are also displayed. With replica costumes to try on.
More

Unseen photography and footage of Britain's faceless war wounded from the First World War, displayed alongside contemporary uniform sculptures tracing their surgery, rehabilitation and recovery, in a groundbreaking new exhibition.
More

A unique exhibition of photographic portraits by award winning filmmaker Gerry Troyna. From the humblest station orphan to a coolie, a high-level bureaucrat to a loco driver, Meri Rail is a snapshot in time of the people who work for and depend on the Indian railways.
More

An exploration of painting, and other arts, in miniature, the highlight of which is Isaac Oliver's masterpiece The Three Brothers Browne
More

This conference is part of a collaborative research project between the National Portrait Gallery, The Courtauld Institute of Art and the University of Sussex, called Making Art in Tudor Britain. Sessions wil include: materials, appearances, effects, and the artists' workshop; authorship: native and foreign artists; patronage for portraiture and the use of documentary and technical evidence.
More details & bookings

Britain's army has represented one of the world's most diverse workforces, relying on black and Asian soldiers in peace and in adversity. This website brings together those stories and experiences to reveal a new history of the Army.
More

From her childhood Queen Elizabeth's face has been captured repeatedly on film and canvas. Many of these representations have been the source of several stamps, and even more proposed stamp designs. This British Postal Museum & Archive exhibition takes a closer look at some of these philatelic portraits.
More

This British Postal Museum & Archive exhibition explores the evolution of Arnold Machin's classic profile portrait of the Queen
More

Between 1937 and 1938 Humphrey Spender took over 900 pictures of Bolton at the request of Tom Harrisson, one of the founders of the Mass-Observation project. Spender's Worktown photographs offer a fascinating insight into the lives of ordinary people living and working in a British pre-War industrial town.
More

Self Guided trail for families.
More

Disability is no respecter of person. Those represented on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery and in its collections are among the most celebrated members of British society but among them are many with disabilities. Some are celebrated in literature: Richard III was famously depicted by Shakespeare as ‘Crookback’, while the poet Byron who had a foot disability, or ‘club-foot’, has been vilified as having ‘the face of an angel on a devil’s body’.
More

The Lander Gallery in Truro unveils a remarkable portrait by Mary Winifred Freeman (1866- 1961), depicting her brother-in-law Charles Napier Hemy, painted in his floating studio in 1892.
More

The National Portrait Gallery and the Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, acquire a portrait of one of the giants of the Industrial Revolution not exhibited since 1883.
More

Philip Mould Fine Paintings has identified this portrait of Elizabeth dating to the very start of her reign. She is shown in a simple black costume with an ermine trim, and holds a pair of gloves in one hand and a prayer book in the other. X-ray and infra-red examination has revealed another complete portrait of Elizabeth underneath the present picture, in which she is seen looking directly at the viewer.
More

The National Army Museum is pleased to announce that the appeal to save the J S C Schaak painting of General Wolfe - victor of the Battle of Quebec and a hero of the Seven Years War - from export to a private collection overseas has been successful.
More

The National Conservation Centre produces plaster replicas of Michael Rysbrack’s bust of the architect James Gibbs (1682-1754)
More

A beautiful portrait of Princess Mary (1631 - 1660), the eldest daughter of Charles I, by Anthony van Dyck, has been saved for the nation and will return to the palace where it appears to have hung in the last days of the reign of the sitter's ill-fated father. The portrait of Mary, Princess Royal, later Princess of Orange and mother of William III, has been acquired by the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme and allocated to Historic Royal Palaces and is now on display at Hampton Court Palace from Thursday 12 February 2009.
More