Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales has announced the first major retrospective in over forty years dedicated to one of Wales’ most accomplished artists, Gwen John. Gwen John: Strange Beauties places the artist centre stage in the year that will mark 150 years since her birth. Born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire in 1876, Gwen John studied at the […]
Two small yet commanding lithograph portraits feature in the British Museum’s current exhibition Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans. The portraits of King Liholiho and Queen Kamāmalu anchor this exhibition’s account of the unification of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i and their unprecedented diplomatic visit to the United Kingdom more than two hundred years ago. Diplomatic gifts presented […]
A new commission by nationally-acclaimed British artist Charmaine Watkiss is on display at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter until 16 August 2026. Charmaine Watkiss is known for works that explore the botanical legacy and healing traditions of the Caribbean through which she traces a lineage to Africa. Inspired by the museum’s West African displays, […]
Wright of Derby: From the Shadows is the first major exhibition dedicated to the British artist’s ‘candlelight’ paintings. Challenging the traditionally held view of Wright of Derby as a figurehead of the Enlightenment, this exhibition contributes to the ongoing re-evaluation of the artist, portraying him as much more than a ‘painter of light’. More than […]
Organised by the Understanding British Portraits Subject Specialist Network in partnership with The Box, Plymouth This event is funded by the Journeys with Mai project, which is generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and other supporters. Hybrid event: in-person at the University of Plymouth, and online via Zoom Places are free […]
We are currently planning a two-day sector-facing event exploring the impact of contemporary art interventions which respond to historic portraiture collections. This event is inspired by the Journeys with Mai tour, which has placed pacific artist commissions in dialogue with the display of the portrait to disrupt traditional approaches to display, allowing space for critique and co-creation, explore […]
The University of Sheffield and the National Portrait Gallery are inviting applications for a Collaborative Doctoral Award on the subject of The Female Miniaturist 1680-1840: Recovering Lives, Practices and Representations. Funded by the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH), this project investigates an overlooked aspect of female artistic practice: the portrait miniature. […]
This summer, the Warburg Institute is offering the online short course Painting Icons: A History of the Portrait from Byzantium to Basquiat. Taking in some of the biggest names in the history of art, as well as some less well-known figures, the course will also explore how, by specialising in portraiture, certain artists throughout the centuries became […]
An exquisite oil on copper miniature depicting a noblewoman in gold-embroidered finery against a blue background is currently on display at Strawberry Hill House. Previously attributed to Bronzino, recent analysis has indicated that it may have been made in the final decades of the 1500s by Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614), the Bolognese painter widely considered Europe’s […]
We are very pleased to share a new film produced by one of our 2024 Fellows, Kate Haselden, which illustrates her research into one of the only examples of a portrait depicting an individual Black person within National Museums Liverpool’s collection: William Lindsay Windus’ The Black Boy (1844). In her project, Kate examined this striking portrait of an unnamed […]
