The National Portrait Gallery

The Girl In The National Portrait Gallery

Even though I am still not relaxed enough to really enjoy London, I did visit the first item on my to-see list : The National Portrait Gallery.

Now 2 cool things about London to begin with :
many museums are open until 21.00 Thursdays and Fridays
and really a lot of museums have free entry! (how fantastic is that!)

So I felt like seeing something else than my computer for a while, jumped on the Piccadilly Line, jumped off on Leicester Square and walked the 200 meter from there to the NPG.

What is it ?
The NPG is an artgallery with portraits. Lots of portraits of famous people, and they can be made as photographs, paintings, drawings, sketches, sculptures etc. You can find portraits of english kings and queens, and earls and barons, but also of people like Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, David Beckham, and loads of other famous people.

Should you see it ?
Well if you have an hour or 2 to spare, you might want to see it. There are some really cool Andy Warhol paintings, the pictures of the Blur – Best of cover are there (and they are cool), and it is quite fun to look at all the different portraits. You can skip the British Earls and Kings and Queens section (I did), and just look at the more modern ones.

And if you hurry you might catch my The Girl drawing too, as it is hanging there at the moment. The warden politely gave me permission to take a picture of my own work, all other photography is forbidden. She probably thought I was mad, which I am. But here you go.

Anything else ?
Yes. I saw portraits of Alan Rickman, Judi Dench, Timothy Spall, Gregory Palmer, John Hurt, Ian McKellan, Robbie W., Cate Blanchett, Sinead O’Connor, and I could go on. All the famous Brits were there. But he wasn’t ! Unforgiveable of course, I have to write them a mail.

Web : The National Portrait Gallery

National Portrait Gallery
St Martin’s Place
London WC2H 0HE

Tube station: Leicester Square (about 200 meters walk from there)

Entrance : FREE