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

Latest News

Call for Papers – Dress and Painting: Clothing and Textiles in Art

This year’s Association of Dress Historians International Conference will take place at the National Portrait Gallery on 7-8 October 2024. Exploring the theme of Dress and Painting: Clothing and Textiles in Art, the conference aims to bring together scholars, professionals, and practitioners to explore and examine the wide range of interconnections between dress, textiles and […]

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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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Casta, Caste & Classification: If paintings could talk – an academic discussion

          Friday 24 February, 14:00-18:00. Opal22 Arts and Entertainment have organised the panel discussion Casta, Caste and Classification, which will discuss the historical significance of Casta paintings. Tara Munroe, the director of Opal 22, discovered Leicester Museums & Art Gallery’s significant Casta collection 12 years ago, after they were discarded for […]

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Making Modernism at the Royal Academy 

    Making Modernism is the first major UK exhibition devoted to pioneering women working in Germany in the early 1900s: Paula Modersohn-Becker, Kӓthe Kollwitz, Gabriele Münter and Marianne Werefkin. Celebrated in their native homelands, this exhibition will introduce their innovative paintings and works on paper, alongside key pictures by Erma Bossi, Ottilie Reylaender and Jacoba van […]

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Soheila Sokhanvari: Rebel Rebel at The Barbican’s Curve

  Rebel Rebel, the first major UK commission by Iranian artist Soheila Sokhanvari, celebrates and commemorates feminist icons from pre-revolutionary Iran. Sokhanvari transforms the Curve into a devotional space, populated with exquisite miniature portraits of glamorous cultural figures from Iran. The project spotlights the rarely told histories of these women, who pursued creative careers in a […]

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The Wallace Collection’s Miniatures Explored

In this talk, Dr Lucy Davis explores in greater depth the miniatures at the Wallace Collection, which were collected by the Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace. She discusses highlights and less well-known examples from the collection, focussing particularly but not exclusively on the British miniatures. She explores the different techniques and materials used by […]

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Unidentified Sitter in Re-discovered 17th Century Portrait

  A recently discovered painting dated 1626 features an unidentified, regally-dressed child. The previously forgotten painting was left hanging behind an open door for several decades and was uncovered by an antiques expert during a house clearance, following the death of its owner. The 400-year-old portrait could fetch 20,000 pounds at auction. It bears the name Adriaen Verkins (possibly Dutch) and is dated […]

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