National Portrait Gallery (London)
The National Portrait Gallery (NPG ) is an art museum at St Martin 's Place, London, which opened in 1856. It houses portraits of historically important and famous British people.
The selection of the portraits is due to the importance of the portrait, not the artist who created the work. The collection includes photographs, cartoons, paintings, drawings and sculptures. In the collection there are also self-portraits, for example, by William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds and other famous British artists. Since 1969, portraits of living persons are allowed.
The first image that the museum received at its inception - and probably still the most famous - is the so-called Chandos portrait of William Shakespeare, that of 2006, the images obtained by the poet as the most likely candidate for, according to a study of the NPG a real portrait applies.
1896 moved the gallery into its current building one right next to the National Gallery. The building has since been extended twice.
Since 1932 photographs are collected in the National Portrait Gallery. The first person whose photograph was taken after controversial discussions in the collection, was the cookbook author and journalist Isabella Beeton.
In addition to historical portraits, the National Portrait Gallery presents a collection of contemporary art and special exhibitions by individual artists, and holds an annual competition BP Portrait Prize.
Special
- 2012: Lucian Freud: "Portraits ".