Recently the National Portrait Gallery announced that the esteemed London museum would soon be undergoing a series of extensive renovations, which include “a comprehensive redisplay of the Collection from the Tudors to now, combined with a complete refurbishment of the building, the creation of new public spaces, a more welcoming visitor entrance and public forecourt, and a new state of the art Learning Center.” The Inspiring People renovation project will use designs by Jamie Fobert Architects and is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Additional funding comes from various grants and donations from trusts, foundations, and individuals. These extensive renovations will require a lengthy period of closure, from June 29, 2020 until the spring of 2023.
If you aren’t familiar with the National Portrait Gallery, it is home to the world’s largest collection of portrait art, featuring images of people influential to British culture in all circles of society. You can see royalty like Elizabeth I or Elizabeth II or rockstar playboys like Lord Byron or Mick Jagger and anyone in between (or before or after, for that matter). The Portrait Gallery brings familiar names from Britain’s past and present to life through their likenesses, giving visitors a very human connection to historic and cultural figures.
The National Portrait Gallery was founded in 1856, when enthusiastic supporters finally convinced Queen Victoria and the House of Commons to support the project. It was founded with the donation of the first picture in the collection, the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, which remains in Gallery to this day. However, the NPG didn’t find a permanent home until 1896, when it moved to its current location beside the National Gallery at St. Martin’s Place, near Trafalgar Square, where it has been an important cultural fixture ever since.
What is involved in these renovations?
Why the long closure? Three years, after all, seems like a long time for a major museum to shut its doors. The official page cites extensive renovations, including “a comprehensive re-display of the Collection, combined with an extensive refurbishment of the building, the creation of new public spaces, a more welcoming visitor entrance and public forecourt, and a new state of the art Learning Centre.”
So what does all of this actually mean? Why are they doing this? The NPG claims that what sounds like a jolting transformation from plush Victorian showroom to cold modern icebox will be no such thing; they assure us that the gallery will not be “unrecognizable” after the work is completed, and that the building’s historic details and character will be preserved. The new entrance sounds more than anything else like an attempt at greater efficiency. The current entrance, which faces St. Martin’s Place and Trafalgar Square, was dictated by the Victorian desire to avoid looking at then-unsightly Soho. Modern museum runners, however, have decided that the Victorians will not protest adding an entrance on that side of the building. The new entrance is meant to alleviate congestion that forms in the one small entrance that currently lets visitors into the museum, cutting down on the time visitors spend standing in lines to get in. Another big change is the expansion of the Collection into the East Wing, a section of the museum that is currently closed to the public and being used as offices. They hope that more space means the modern portraits in the collection will not have to be shifted around as much to make room for temporary exhibits, as they have in the past.
Will the public still be able to see the portraits during this time?
Of course the big question is, what happens to this huge collection in the meantime? Is it going to sit gathering dust in a warehouse during the three years of closure? Fortunately, the answer to that question is no. Collaborations with museums and other historical sites around the UK will keep items from the collection on display throughout the closing period. Some loans have already begun through the Coming Home Project, which sends portraits from the collection to relevant sites throughout the UK. The collection’s portrait of Richard III has been sent to Leicester, where he is buried, and Thomas Phillip’s portrait of Lord Byron in Albanian Dress is currently living at Newstead Abbey, the famous poet’s family home. Additional loan programs will take place between the NPG and other significant British museums. Naturally London museums will play a part, with some pieces moving next door to the National Gallery and a large royal portrait collection going on display at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Further afield, Scotland’s National Portrait Gallery will play host to a portion of the collection, and some exhibits will travel to National Trust properties, while collections of specific interest to individual communities will be put together and sent to destinations across the UK.
So despite the bad news that the National Portrait Gallery is definitely closing for three years, and you won’t be able to see all of the Gallery’s treasures all in one place as you usually can, there is a silver lining. The portraits aren’t going to be hidden away for all that time, and the closing will, in fact, give the collection a broader reach during this time. The smaller collections that are being curated for these loans may even give the viewer a fresh way of interpreting sections of the NPG’s collections by seeing the various selections in conversation with each other in new settings and arrangements.
If you don’t want to trek all over the UK to see pieces from the NPG, be sure to go before the Gallery closes on June 29, 2020. Exhibits will run up until the NPG closes, so be sure to see all you can before it goes away for a while. One of the current exhibits, Pre-Raphaelite Sisters, explores the lives and works of the female counterparts to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of nineteenth-century artists who embraced more romantic themes in their work in the face of the realism of the period. The Sisters were artists and poets in their own right, in addition to serving as the models and muses behind the Brotherhood’s famous paintings. Pre-Raphaelite Sisters collects pieces from collections around the world and is running now until January 26, 2020.
Want more information?
Go to the National Portrait Gallery’s official page for more information about the Gallery’s history, collections, current exhibits, and special events.
Check out the NPG’s Instagram for daily posts about art, art history, competitions, and upcoming events.
The Inspiring People page has information about the renovation project.
This article from The Guardian breaks down some of the destinations of parts of the collection during the closing, and this one talks about the Coming Home project.
