The Latest

We are delighted to be exhibiting in Masterpiece Online 2021. Click here or visit our exhibition page for more information.

This portrait of Oonagh Guinness by Philip de Laszlo is the highlight of both our Masterpiece and London Art Week exhibitions. In this video, Philip explores the glamour and beauty of de Laszlo's portraiture in the 1930s.

Few twentieth century British artists were more consciously and passionately drawn to flowers than Cedric Morris. Renowned horticulturist, author and presenter Alys Fowler explores Cedric Morris’ two great passions – plants and painting, in an online lecture.

Mildred Cooke Cecil: Pregnancy Portrayed in Elizabethan England
A Free Online Public Lecture delivered by Karen Hearn FSA | 3 June 2021 | 19:00-20:00

This strikingly propagandist portrait of King James VI & I was painted not long after his accession to the English throne and is unique within his documented iconography in oil paint. Its visual elements reveal a ruler’s message of union and peace.

Over the passage of time a sitter's identity can often be forgotten, and even the most important figures of the Elizabethan age can be found languishing under mistaken identities.  In this short film, Lawrence Hendra, Head of Research at the gallery, explores the idenity of this arrestingly individual sitter by the portraitist Robert Peake.

English sixteenth century portraits of children are rare, and when they were portrayed the child's maturity was often exaggerated. Watch this video to explore this overstated association with adulthood in a portrait of a young three-year-old girl.

Powerful, self-admiring and proud, Robert Dudley's ego has raised eyebrows for nearly 500 years.

This portrait contains subtle, naturalistic touches which offer a glimpse into the story of the real man behind the power and glory.

An essay by Jessica David, Senior Paintings Conservator at the Yale Center for British Art, and Dr. Edward Town, Head of Collections Information and Access at the Yale Center for British Art.