Founded in 1856 to collect portraits of famous British men and women throughout history, The National Portrait Gallery collection currently holds over 175,000 portraits from the 16th Century to the present day. The collection includes photographs, miniatures, paintings, drawings and sculptures from the likes of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn to Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and Virginia Woolf to Dame Judi Dench, Mick Jagger, and Queen Elizabeth II. The idea of a National Portrait Gallery was first introduced to the House of Commons in 1846 by British politician and historian, Philip Henry Stanhope, and the Gallery was formally established in 1856 following a ten-year campaign. The first picture to enter the Gallery’s collection was the ‘Chandos Portrait’ of William Skakespeare (circa 1610) attributed to painter John Taylor. The portrait is on display in the Gallery’s Room 4, and it is the only portrait of Shakespeare that has any claim to have been painted from life. The National Portrait Gallery is located adjacent to the National Gallery off Trafalgar Square.
- National Portrait Gallery
- St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE
- www.npg.org.uk
- Underground: Charing Cross and Leicester Square