The Ballroom at Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent. © National Trust Images/Andreas von Einsiedel

Blog Category

Introducing the Archive Survey Project

The National Portrait Gallery has recently launched a project to identify, and find the identities of, sitters from the global majority in historic British portraiture using the Gallery’s Heinz Archive and Library. This relates to all sitters who were racialized as ‘other than White’ by the society they lived in (particularly those of African and […]

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Opportunity: Understanding British Portraits Network Podcast Hosts and Engineer

We are excited to announce that the Understanding British Portraits network will be producing its very own Podcast! Aimed at the museum/gallery/heritage sector and wider listenership in the UK, the Podcast series is intended to support debate and enquiry around portrait interpretation, display, curation, research and audience engagement, reflecting current museological concerns and adding fresh voices […]

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Understanding British Portraits and The Health of the Munition Worker

        As Curator at The Devil’s Porridge Museum, my research primarily focuses on social history and how people lived and worked during the First World War. I’ve followed the UBP network for some time, and particularly enjoyed 2022’s Annual Seminar which helped me to reflect on some of my own work.  But […]

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Portraits and Painting: a Day of Discoveries

        Discovery.  Reinterpretation.  Re-appraisal.  Representation of identities.  These are only a few of the themes I noted from the Understanding British Portraits Network Annual Seminar on Tuesday 25 October 2022.  I was keen to learn new techniques to study portraits, to set alongside, for example, the concepts of fashioning and self-fashioning of […]

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Opportunity: Researcher/Coordinator – Subject Specialist Network: Understanding British Portraiture

            The position of ‘Researcher/Coordinator – Subject Specialist Network: Understanding British Portraiture’ is now open for applications. The candidate will be employed by the National Portrait Gallery and will report to the Head of National Programmes and the Understanding British Portraits Steering Group. The Researcher/Coordinator will provide research and coordination […]

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Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize Winners Announced

The winners of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize were announced at Cromwell Place on the 25th of October 2022.                 Clémentine Schneidermann took first place for the series Laundry Day which depict the artist’s neighbour hanging laundry in the garden of her home in South Wales. Taken during another […]

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A Portrait of Coronavirus by Anna Linch and Dr Mark Linch

Coronavirus: a noun familiar to everyone today, but perhaps lesser known before the pandemic, unless you work in the field of science or medicine. COVID-19, or its longer name of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has dramatically changed society and will undoubtedly be taught in history lessons in the future. As we look […]

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AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Studentship: Slave-ownership and the National Portrait Gallery, London

Birkbeck and the National Portrait Gallery are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded collaborative doctoral studentship through the REACH Consortium from October 2020 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme. This project examines the links between the National Portrait Gallery and historical transatlantic slavery. In particular, it seeks to understand the impact […]

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Portraiture and Identities by Samantha Howard

Thanks to a travel grant from the Understanding British Portraits network, I was able to attend the Engaging Young People aged 14-21 with Portraits conference at Leeds Art Gallery. The conference, programmed by Sarah Shaw, Museum Tales Ltd, in collaboration with Engage and the Understanding British Portraits network, featured a diverse group of speakers who […]

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