National Portrait Gallery

Like the National Gallery next door, entrance is free. And there’s a lovely thrill about seeing the actual paintings which were reproduced in minature in school history books.

The escalator on the left as you enter takes you straight up to the Tudor portraits. There are useful pull out slides next to the seats with extra information like a royal family tree so that you can work out who is who.

Walking through the National Portrait Gallery gave me a vague sense of familiarity, even though I had never been there before, because it is entirely composed of painting, busts, images, and representations of various people who have been, in large ways and small, part of the creation of Great Britain down through time. Many of the images there are the only known representations available of the people depicted; therefore, reproductions of them are used in books, articles, magazines, and on websites and are already familiar throughout the world. Then there is the opportunity to see an image with which to place familiar names I have heard, but whose faces are unfamiliar — Mrs. Beeton, who wrote a very popular advice book for homemakers during the Victorian era is one of these who comes to mind.

Well worth the trip!

As the gallery is arranged chronologically, you can see how the English mug evolved over the centuries. Not necessarily in an entirely upward progression. Peaked at Blake, I think.

Don’t miss William Blake’s death mask…or the gallery.