At the National Portrait Gallery, a Collection that is Unique in All the World
位置: National Portrait Gallery
地址: St. Martin's Pl, Charing Cross, London WC2H 0HE
In the light of a lantern, a young woman traces the profile of her lover on the wall, just before he is about to leave. His father, a potter in Corinth, works these lines into his clay. According to an ancient and fortunate legend, this is the origin of art itself. For thousands of years, before the invention of photography, the painted, sculpted and drawn portrait represented the only means for making distant or deceased people, somehow, become present. Over time, it acquired new functions, highlighting power and prestige, taste and virtue, beauty and emotion. In London, a museum celebrates the art of the portrait with an incredible collection that spans centuries. The National Portrait Gallery is a treasure trove that cannot be matched anywhere else in the world, with eleven-thousand paintings, drawings, sculptures and miniatures, as well as a section dedicated to photography that gathers together over 250.000 images. It is possible to admire masterpieces from Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarts and Andy Warhol, iconic portraits of characters such as Shakespeare and Queen Victoria, photos by masters like Henri Cartier-Bresson or Helmuth Newton, right up to contemporary artist David LaChapelle - a truly remarkable repertoire of faces and characters that tell the very story of Western Civilisation.
Elevating fashion and portrait photography to an art form, Cecil Beaton's photographs defined an era, capturing beauty, glamour and star power in the interwar and postwar eras.
An exhibition to tell an important, but sometimes overlooked, aspect of the work of Edvard Munch, one of the great portraitists of the 19th and 20th centuries.
After 25 years at the British Museum, an exhibition to explore Hiroshige's art and legacy through a major private American collection, as well as prints, drawings, illustrated books and paintings from the British Museum's collection and other international loans.
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