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Off her own bat

Joanna Gilmour profiles Violet Teague, whose sophisticated works hid her originality and non-conformity in plain sight.

Take thy face hence

Joanna Gilmour travels through time to explore the National Portrait Gallery London’s masterpieces in Shakespeare to Winehouse.

Self portrait

Sarah Siddons (née Kemble)

Sir Joseph Banks, Bt

The Lawrence lustre

Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Portrait of Dr John Hawkesworth, c. 1770

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2018

Portraiture in a Bleak House

It may seem an odd thing to do at one’s leisure on a beautiful tropical island, but I spent much of my midwinter break a few weeks ago re-reading Bleak House.

Unknown drawer

Dempsey’s People curator David Hansen chronicles a research tale replete with serendipity, adventure and Tasmanian tigers.

Allow me to introduce...

These full-length figures in watercolour, gouache and pencil date mostly from the 1820s, and almost all come from the collection of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart.

Political profiles

Joanna Gilmour examines the prolific output of Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, and discovers the risk of taking a portrait at face value.

Portrait dendrochronology

Angus's latest Trumbology is accompanied by the following caveat: 'This one is reeeeeeally geeky.'

John Hawkesworth LLD, c. 1850 (originally 1776)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015

First encounters

Representations of the inhabitants of the new world expose the complexities of the colonisers' intentions.

In a good paddock

Celebrating a new painted portrait of Joseph Banks, Sarah Engledow spins a yarn of the naturalist, the first kangaroo in France and Don, a Spanish ram.

Around the grounds

Anne Sanders writes about the exhibitions Victoria & Albert: Art & Love on display at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace and the retrospective of Sir Thomas Lawrence at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Arthur Phillip Esq., Captain General and Commander in Chief in & over the territory of New South Wales, 1789

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010

Sir Joseph Banks, c. 1788

Purchased 2010

In the galleries

Christopher Chapman highlights the inaugural hang of the new National Portrait Gallery building which opened in December 2008.

Joseph Banks Esq, 1774

Purchased 2008

Omai, A Native of Ulaietea, 1774

Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007

The incomparable Beaton

To accompany the exhibition Cecil Beaton: Portraits, held at the NPG in 2005, this article is drawn from Hugo Vickers's authorised biography, Cecil Beaton (1985).

Capturing Cook

In focussing on the importance of gifts in the building of the collection, prominence must be given to the most spectacular of the National Portrait Gallery's acquisitions; the portrait of Captain James Cook RN by John Webber R.A.