Whose face do you need to see at the National Portrait Gallery?

Since its closure in 2020, the day London’s National Portrait Gallery (NGP) will open its door to the public again has been one of the most highly anticipated. And after three years, the day finally came on Thursday, 22 June. The city is abuzz at the prospect of interacting with beloved and brand-new works that tell the story of portraiture throughout art history, and, to mark the occasion, the NPG has introduced the First Look Festival, a special week of events running until Sunday, 2 July. 

With over 1000 artworks to see in the NPG’s revamped collections, it isn't easy to know what to look for. To get involved in the celebratory spirit, MADE IN BED has provided our readers with a guide to the best faces found in the museum. 

National Portrait Gallery. Courtesy Architects Journal.

Tracey Emin, The Doors, 2023

At the NPG, the museum entrance is equally important as its contents. Its former entrance looked out onto the busy streets of Soho. But in an attempt to make the entrance more welcoming and accessible for all, the project’s architect Ewan Christian, moved it as far around the corner as possible so that one would come in via the much more attractive St. Martin’s Place. The slight upwards slope of the street literally elevates the entering experience providing the impression that one is ascending into a portal of portraits. 

The great triumph of this innovation is Tracey Emin’s bronze doors. Adorned with forty-five female faces scribbled in her signature abstracted style, the doors are like a modern-day female reinvention of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s iconic bronze doors set within the side entrances of the Florence Baptistry. Whilst some portraits have defined attributes that provide them with some sense of identity - one wears a crown, whilst another has ‘Mum’ written on her breast - they are not intended to be portraits of any specific person. Rather internationally felt emotion, age, and culture is Emin’s focus. Thus, one can always personally connect with at least one, if not several, of Emin’s enigmatic women.

Tracey Emin and The Doors, 2023. Courtesy The Times.

Thomas J. Price, Reaching Out

Situated right in the middle of carved statuettes of notable contemporary and historic names such as Jacob Epstein and Nelson Mandela is a miniature version of Thomas J. Price’s Reaching Out (2020). Cast in dark-coloured bronze, the small sculpture stands out amongst others surrounding it. Unusually, no label is affixed to its podium; but this is entirely intentional. She is an ‘everywoman’. Looking down at her phone, wearing modern clothes and slouched in a modern pose, she is relatable to the contemporary Black British woman. 

In 2020 full-size, 9-foot version was created for the Three Mills Green in Stratford as part of the public art walk, The Line.

Thomas J. Price. Photo by Ilaria Bevan.

Sir Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Mai, c. 1776 

At the centre of the collection’s new displays sits a masterpiece of profound significance to the story of British art: The Portrait of Mai by Sir Joshua Reynolds (c.1776) (formerly Omai). 

The picture's subject is a very rare, non-European sitter who left Tahiti on one of the returning ships from Captain Cook’s voyage and arrived in London in 1774. Here, his exotic Polynesian ancestry and refined manners brought him to the attention of King George III and the British aristocracy, among whom he would be an honoured guest for the next two years. Having returned to his native land in 1777, he died in 1779.

Aside from Reynolds’ exceptional painting skills in rendering Mai’s regal character, the picture rose to greater international prominence following its sale at Sotheby’s in November 2001 to Irish businessman and racehorse breeder Gerard Magnier, who tried to bring it home After Anthony Mould valued the work for £50 million, an incredible fundraising campaign moved forward with the NPG leading the charge. They invited the J. Paul Getty Museum to share the payment and, thus, the ownership - a tremendous story of international friendship. 

Installation view of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Mai, c.1776. Photo by Ilaria Bevan.

Jann Haworth & Liberty Blake, Work in Progress, 2021-2022

As the largest artwork installed in the NPG’s permanent collection, Work in Progress (2021-2) is hard to miss. And quite right too. 

Working in collaboration, American artist Jann Haworth and British collage artist Liberty Blake have created the ultimate monument to 130 trailblazing British women in the form of a seven-panel mural. It features familiar faces such as Jane Goodall, Agatha Christie, Amy Winehouse, Sylvia Plath and even Queen Elizabeth II, to those less recognisable like Queen Boudicca, Ellen Craft and Charlotte Cooper. 

Arranged in carefully curated layers - full, lifesize figures at the front, headshots at the top - each face was carefully created by painted stencils that were intentionally cropped or elongated to emphasise Blake’s collaged effect. Within the crowd, one other figure eludes the mind - the unnamed, unidentified woman. Portrayed by a simple blue silhouette, the figure is an ode to future generations of female forces in history and culture. 

Jann Haworth and Liberty Blake, Work in Progress, 2021-2. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery.

Freud Gallery

On the second floor is a unique room that shines a light on one of the most innovative British portraitists working in the twentieth century: Lucian Freud. Comprising a number of paintings (including an incredible unfinished self-portrait), drawings and notebook sketches from the Frued archive, the space provides a moment for reflection and offers an insight into the artist’s life and creative practice. 

Installation view of Lucian Freud, Lucian Freud, c. 1985. Photo by Ilaria Bevan.

Yevonde: Life and Colour

Yevonde is a name that, until this moment, was likely only known to a few. Now, with her solo retrospective exhibition at the NPG, she is finally given the stage she deserves. Yevonde was one of the early feminists, having joined the Suffragette movement to campaign for women’s voting rights. She also set up her own photography studio at the age of twenty-one in 1914, where she began to make a name for herself after her photographs appeared in popular fashion magazines such as Tatler. 

Blending elements of Surrealism, fashion, science and still-life, together with the newly discovered Vivex colour photography process, she was one of the medium’s most experimental and pioneering figures during the 1930s. The NPG’s curatorial display showcases the very best of her photographic endeavours from her sixty-year-long career. In particular, a midnight blue room positioned at the back of the exhibition, decorated with silver and gold stars, transports curious minds into the dreamy world seen through her sharp camera lens. 

Yevonde, No You Shut Up - Vivien Leigh, 1936. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery.

Ilaria Bevan

Editor in Chief, MADE IN BED