Lucian Freud Portraits

My Favourite Portraitby Anna Chancellor

Imagined Lives: Portraitsof Unknown People

Richard Hamilton:Portraits of the Artist

Face to Face SPRING 2012

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Face to Face Issue 38

Deputy Director & Director of Communications and Development Pim Baxter

Communications Officer Helen Corcoran

Editor Elisabeth Ingles

Designer Annabel Dalziel

All images National Portrait Gallery, London and © National Portrait Gallery, London, unless stated

www.npg.org.uk

Recorded Information Line 020 7312 2463

COVER AND BELOW

Self-portraitby Lucian Freud, 1963National Portrait Gallery, London© The Lucian Freud Archive

This portrait will feature in the exhibitionLucian Freud Portraitsfrom 9 February until 27 May 2012 in theWolfson and Ground Floor Lerner Galleries

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FROM THE DIRECTOR

THIS SPRING the Gallery presents Lucian FreudPortraits, the first exhibition to focus on Freud’sportraiture. Spanning seven decades, from theearly 1940s to the artist’s death in July 2011,Lucian Freud Portraits includes iconic andrarely seen portraits of his lovers, friends andfamily. Exhibition curator Sarah Howgateexplores Freud’s work on pages 6 to 11.

Alongside this major exhibition, a number of free displays are on show throughout the Gallery. On page 3, display curator RuthBrimacombe writes about Dickens: Life &Legacy, a collection of prints, drawings andphotographs marking the bicentenary of the author’s birth, and on page 12 curatorPaul Moorhouse looks back over the life and career of Richard Hamilton, to whom RichardHamilton: Portraits of the Artist pays tribute.Beatrice Behlen, co-curator of Gertie Millar,Countess of Dudley: Stage to Society,recounts her experience of rediscoveringphotographs of a forgotten musical comedystar on page 16.

On display at the Gallery until July 2012,Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown Peoplepresents a remarkable set of portraits ofunknown sitters painted between 1520 and1650. The pictures are accompanied byfictional biographies written by such acclaimedauthors as Julian Fellowes and AlexanderMcCall Smith, which feature in a new Gallerypublication. Author Tracy Chevalier describeswriting two short stories for Imagined Liveson pages 14 and 15.

Beyond the Gallery, the innovative displayNatural Arts: Great Landscape Designers ofthe 18th Century is on show from 11 February2012 at the National Trust propertyBeningbrough Hall, Yorkshire. Curator ClareBarlow describes this display, which presentshistorical portraits of gardeners from theGallery’s Collection alongside contemporaryphotographs of the National Trust gardensthey created, on page 13.

On page 17 you can read about the eventsthat led to my book, Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners, published earlier thisyear. This is not an adventure I would wish to repeat!

Lastly, as the Taylor Wessing PhotographicPortrait Prize 2011 exhibition comes to aclose, Clare Ferguson, Consultant at TaylorWessing, shares her experience of sitting on the judging panel, and on pages 4 and 5considers some of her favourite portraits in the exhibition.

Sandy NairneDIRECTOR

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There’s an ambivalence about this portrait: is it a painting of a woman loving anotherwoman, or a statement by an artist at a timeof great political upheaval – a skilled womansaying, ‘I have as much right as a man topaint a nude’?

Whatever the artist’s intention, it’s an exampleof what womanly creativity does best. It’s agreat painting. I adore it – I wish I had it.

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I ADMIRE the painterliness of this work, but I also like not knowing too much about the artof painting: when I look at this portrait I’m anamateur observer, I only have a pure reaction.It’s completely different from how I approacha play, although I think of acting as a form ofportraiture: portraying a character, making itcome to life.

This painting is an object of great beauty.Physically, I love the contrast between the richorange-reds and the pale skin of the model. I like the texture of the thick paint, and thecomplex composition: the three figures in atriangle, the painter at her easel on the leftworking on a half-finished picture, and thenude posing in front of her on the right. Onewonders if the painting goes on and on: is the artist painting herself in the picture too?

I see this painting as a great homage to anaked woman. The woman’s body is sobeautiful, so sensual – the tones of the flesh,the pink bottom. Yet the scene is relaxed; thecarpet the nude stands on has a comfortable,familiar quality, like a beach towel.

And then there’s the self-portrait of the artist,who chooses to paint herself from behind.There’s a complete lack of vanity (comparedto the figure on the right she’s rather broad inthe beam), but she’s so alert, she has such anintelligent face. There’s no self-aggrandisement,no false humility. She’s the quiet womanworking her way to the front. There’s nothingbrash about her.

MY FAVOURITE PORTRAITby Anna ChancellorActress

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Anna Chancellor has performed for theatre, televisionand film for over twenty years. Famously starring as theinimitable ‘Duckface’ in Four Weddings And A Funeral,she has also appeared in Kavanagh QC, Spooks, Tippingthe Velvet and Pride and Prejudice. Anna recently starredin The Last of the Duchess at the Hampstead Theatre,and is currently filming the second series of The Hourfor the BBC. Forthcoming roles include performances in a West End run of a much-anticipated double bill:Terence Rattigan’s ever-popular The Browning Versionand South Downs by David Hare.

BELOW

Laura Knight; Ella LouiseNaper (née Champion)by Dame Laura Knight,1913© Reproduced with permission ofThe Estate of Dame Laura KnightDBE RA, 2012. All Rights Reserved.

On display in Room 30

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PART OF A GLOBAL celebration to mark thebicentenary of Charles Dickens’s birth inFebruary 1812, this biographical displayexplores the lasting significance of thelegendary nineteenth-century writer,celebrated as ‘the most English of storytellers’.Shown alongside the portrait by Dickens’s close friend Daniel Maclise of the brilliantyoung author on the crest of rising fame, thedisplay presents a variety of images of him, as well as portraits of his family, friends andcontemporaries, during the mature phase ofhis career when his reputation was at its peak.Capturing a sense of the man, whose eyesreportedly ‘had as much life and animation in them as twenty ordinary eyes’, the displayalso considers Dickens’s American tours in1842 and 1867.

Drawing on contextual works from theGallery’s Archive, Charles Dickens: Life &Legacy includes a range of prints, drawingsand photographs that together demonstratethe continuing effects of his ‘mighty creativeimagination’. A popular theme associatedwith the author was the notion that the richcharacters he invented took on a life of theirown, and the strong visual quality of hisnarratives meant that they were quicklytransferred to the stage. Coinciding with thefilm remake of Great Expectations directed byMike Newell, the display looks at some of theactors who have embodied Dickens’s manycharacters since 1836. One particular highlightof this display is Cecil Beaton’s image, from1945, of Martita Hunt playing the role of

the vengeful, jilted bride Miss Havisham inDavid Lean’s award-winning production.

When Dickens died suddenly in June 1870 thestandard portrait motif took on a darker edge.The display ends with a series of memorialimages, created posthumously, playing with the idea of the exhausted writer fatallydrained by the vibrant array of characters that drew life from his imagination.

CHARLES DICKENS: LIFE & LEGACYby Ruth BrimacombeAssistant Curator

Charles Dickens: Life & Legacyuntil 22 April 2012Room 24 case displayAdmission free

BELOW

Charles Dickens (detail) by Daniel Maclise, 1839© Tate 2012, on loan to theNational Portrait Gallery, London

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YEARS AGO I was lucky enough to helpcatalogue some original photographs taken by iconic early photographers such as HenryFox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron and AlfredStieglitz. My interest in photography wasignited, so I was thrilled when Taylor Wessingstarted its relationship with the NationalPortrait Gallery, and delighted to be on thejudging panel for the Taylor WessingPhotographic Portrait Prize 2011.

The wonderfully diverse, challenging, funny,tender, shocking images that we were showneach told a story but what that story was wedid not know. We knew nothing about thephotographer, or what lay behind the image.So our imagination filled the gap. Several ofthe final sixty turned out to depict somethingquite other than the judges had thought. One of a mother and child proved to be of a mother and doll. One of imagined combatloss depicted parental grief at their childhaving left home. We all wondered at the fate of the guinea pig in Jooney Woodward’swinning photograph. So stark was thebackground, so direct the girl’s gaze that I assumed, wrongly, that the guinea pig was not long for this world.

The process of judging is managedscrupulously fairly by the Gallery’s Director,Sandy Nairne, and it was enlightening tolisten to the other panel members expressingtheir views from a much more expert platformthan mine as to why this or that photographwas worthy of progressing through the

TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHICPORTRAIT PRIZE 2011: A JUDGE’SPERSPECTIVEby Clare FergusonConsultant, Taylor Wessing, and Taylor WessingPhotographic Portrait Prize 2011 Judge

BELOW FROM TOP

Abenther, Ari Boy with Toy Carby Harry Hook© Harry Hook

Malega, Surma Boyby Mario Marino© Mario Marino

OPPOSITE PAGE FROM LEFT

The Embraceby Jonathan May© Jonathan May

Graceby Carol Allen Storey© Carol Allen Storey

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selection process. Selecting involves severalhours of debate and several hundred imageswere visited and revisited. This methodicalreview produced surprising results: an earlycandidate could fade away, while anothermight creep up on the inside track to gainconsiderable support.

My personal favourites are those which areenigmatic and defy snap judgment. Whilst thetechnical craftsmanship is always important,the images which gripped me were those with a sense of intrigue. What caused themutilation to Bibi Aisha’s face (Jodi Bieber)?How could Leo Gormley (Mark Johnson) smileso tenderly after his atrocious burns? Whatwas going on with Anna (Paolo Patrizi) lyingon the mattress in the reeds?

My four personal favourite images are shownin this article: Harry Hook’s Abenther, Ari Boywith Toy Car; Jonathan May’s The Embrace;Mario Marino’s Malega, Surma Boy, and theglorious luminescent Grace by Carol Allen

Storey. Each of these four seems to saysomething about survival in this tumultuousworld. If I could add two more I wouldchoose, first, Berlo Bevilacqua’s extraordinaryimage of Gianni Hermit For Love, where,naturally, the dogs are a great deal morecurious than the hermit, and secondly thebleak depiction of The King’s Palace Kabul byJeremy Rata where the skeletal remains, dustand rubble seem palpable – and shocking.

It was such a privilege to be one of the judgesthis year. Taylor Wessing’s relationship withthe National Portrait Gallery has grown fromstrength to strength and long may it continueto do so. It enriches our lives, those of ourclients and other charity partners and, wehope, helps the winning candidates to gaininternational recognition.

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011until 12 February 2012Porter GalleryAdmission £2Free for Gallery SupportersSponsored by Taylor Wessing

Taylor Wessing PhotographicPortrait Prize 2011with an essay by MichaelBracewell and interviews by Richard McClure £15 (paperback), or £13 whenexhibition ticket is shown

Available from Gallery Shops andonline at www.npg.org.uk/shop

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‘Nobody is representing anything. Everything is autobiographical and everything is a portrait,even if it’s a chair.’ Lucian Freud

THE IDEA of the National Portrait Galleryhosting a survey exhibition of Lucian Freud’sportraits was developed in 2006. The time feltright to embark on an ambitious exhibitionwhich would investigate seven decades of theartist’s portrait work and explore his influenceand legacy as a modern master of figuration.This had never been undertaken before and it seemed fitting that it should take place in2012, our Olympic year, and the year thatFreud would turn ninety. When the DirectorSandy Nairne approached the artist with theproposal, Freud was excited about his workbeing shown in the context of 500 years ofportraiture and amused at the idea of beinghailed as an elderly Olympian. With hissupport, work began on the exhibition inearnest. The selection was made in closecollaboration with the artist and his assistant,the painter David Dawson, who worked withhim for the last twenty years. Sadly, withFreud’s death last summer he will not be here to see the exhibition come to fruition.However, it is our intention to make LucianFreud Portraits a celebration rather than a memorial.

The selection of works focuses on portraitheads and figure paintings – although Freud’sbeloved whippet, Pluto, and David Dawson’swhippet, Eli, also make appearances. Thereare over 130 works, mainly paintings but also

a small number of drawings and etchings.Arranged over ten rooms, the exhibitionextends throughout the Lerner Galleries,where the Contemporary Collection usuallyhangs, and into the Wolfson Gallery space.Hung broadly chronologically, it charts Freud’stechnical virtuosity and stylistic development.

Lucian Freud Portraits is a profoundly personalexhibition; rather than being a biographicalretrospective, it charts a life in paint. Eachportrait is the realisation of a relationship

LUCIAN FREUD PORTRAITSby Sarah HowgateContemporary Curator

Lucian Freud Portraitsfrom 9 February until 27 May 2012Wolfson and Ground Floor Lerner GalleriesAdmission £14Concessions £13/£12Free for Gallery SupportersSponsored by Bank of America Merrill LynchSpring Season sponsor Herbert Smith

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between artist and model that has slowlydeveloped over time behind the closed doorof the studio. Freud’s friends, family andacquaintances have always been an eclecticgroup, and this is reflected in the variety ofindividual faces and bodies that occupy hispaintings. Although many of his subjects haveled complex lives, with the exception of somepublic figures, most of them prefer to remainanonymous.

From an early age, Freud’s work wasdominated by the portrait and the exhibitionopens with a self-portrait from 1943, Manwith a Feather, alongside portraits of hisfriend, the patron and collector Peter Watson,and his tutor at the East Anglian School ofPainting and Drawing, Cedric Morris, whosework Freud admired. Freud’s first wife, KittyGarman, the daughter of the sculptor JacobEpstein, is represented in four psychologicallycharged paintings. These early works arecharacterised by a distinctive, unsparing visionand linear approach, which led the arthistorian Herbert Read to describe Freud as‘the Ingres of Existentialism’. Girl with Roses(1947–8), a portrait of a pregnant Kitty,suggests that their relationship at the timewas based on a tender, almost courtly love.Freud pays forensic attention to every detail,from the subtle tonalities of her waxen skin to each individual lock of hair.

Girl in Bed (1952) is an achingly beautifulportrait of Caroline Blackwood, Freud’s second wife, in all her wide-eyed innocence.

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BELOW

Hotel Bedroom, 1954Gift of The BeaverbrookFoundation © The Lucian FreudArchive. Photo: Courtesy LucianFreud Archive

OPPOSITE PAGE

Girl with Roses, 1947–8British Council Collection © The Lucian Freud Archive.Photo: Courtesy Lucian FreudArchive

Two years later the double portrait HotelBedroom (1954) paints a different picture of their relationship. The two figures appear to be entirely separate in the composition –Freud’s detached, shadowy figure looks out atthe viewer, while Caroline, anxiously biting herfingernail, appears absent. In 1993 Carolinereflected on sitting for the artist, an experienceshe had never relished: ‘I myself wasdismayed, others were mystified as to why

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he needed to paint a girl, who at that pointstill looked childish, as so distressingly old.’

Hotel Bedroom was the last painting Freudmade sitting down. Rejecting the praise ofthose who admired his linear approach, by the mid-1950s he had moved away from thisobjective style. He abandoned his soft sablebrushes in favour of coarser hog’s-hair bristlesand began to paint standing up. The result isa more vigorous and liberated approach.Woman Smiling (1958–9), a portrait of theartist Suzy Boyt, marks a transitional momentin Freud’s work. For the first time the viewer ismade aware of the landscape of the face, themottled skin and the bone structure beneaththe flesh. It is also an unusual painting forFreud in that his subject is smiling. Boyt was a pupil of Freud’s at the Slade School of Artand later became his lover and the mother offour of his children. Their friendship continued, and nearly thirty years later she appears inLarge Interior, W11 (after Watteau) (1981–3).

In 1966 Freud began to investigate paintingthe whole person rather than focusing on the head. Unrelenting in their observationalintensity, the paintings here begin to showvery particular bodies and individuals.Between 1966 and 1968 he painted threenude studies of the same woman, two ofwhich feature in the exhibition. All three werepainted from the same high viewpoint. NakedGirl, the first in the series, is the most startlingin its directness. Comparisons can be drawnwith Courbet’s L’Origine du Monde (1866),

a painting so shocking that it wasn’t exhibiteduntil 1988. Perhaps, although painted overforty years ago, Naked Girl still has the powerto shock, too, in 2012.

Freud’s portraits of his mother, Lucie, belongto a long tradition, from Rembrandt toWhistler, of sons painting their mothers. Fourpaintings of Lucie have been drawn togetherfor the exhibition along with a rare drawing of Freud’s father, Ernst, from 1970, the yearhe died. Freud did not paint his mother inearnest until her old age. Lucian was Lucie’sfavourite son and she had always taken a

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Woman Smiling, 1958–9Private Collection © The LucianFreud Archive. Photo: CourtesyLucian Freud Archive

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great interest in the artist and his work, which he found overbearing. When Freud’sfather died his mother descended into a deepdepression and for Freud it was his mother’sloss of interest in life that made her an idealmodel. The Painter’s Mother Resting (1982–4)is Freud’s last major painting of his motherand a moving and sensitive study of old age.Although she did not die until 1989, there is a sense that she is waiting to die here; hergaze is far away. Her white clothes and theneutral, sunlit blinds give the painting aserene, almost religious quality.

In 1977 the artist moved to a more spaciousstudio in Holland Park. This new space gavehim the freedom to paint on a larger scale,and a skylight gave him brighter paintingconditions. For continuity Freud begandividing his paintings into those done at night and those made during the day. Thewarmth of the flesh in the daylight paintingscontrasts with the bluish hue cast by theelectric light in the night paintings. He wasalways careful to separate his models for the day paintings and the night paintings so that they didn’t encounter each other. The ambition of the new works is reflected in Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau), whichoccupies a central position in the exhibition.The composition, based on Pierrot Content byWatteau, was complex, and the execution ofthe work was made more challenging becauseFreud was suffering from a stiff painting armat the time. But it was his fear that he mightnever be able to paint on this scale again

that drove him on. The five players are SuzyBoyt (seen earlier in Woman Smiling) on the right, with the central figure, her son Kai, who stands in for Pierrot, seated next to her.Freud’s daughter Bella plays the mandolin,and the painter Celia Paul sits on the left. The child lying on the floor was originallygoing to be one of Freud’s grandchildren but she was unavailable and was replacedwith Star, a reluctant alternative. Watteau’spastoral idyll is replaced with a rehearsal roomatmosphere of rough plasterwork, exposedpipes and an unruly plant. Freud’s intention is to show people ‘rehearsing themselves as themselves’.

A room in the exhibition is devoted to threegrand paintings of the Australian performanceartist Leigh Bowery. Freud met Bowery in1990 at a performance at the Anthony

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Large Interior, W11(after Watteau), 1981–3Private Collection © The LucianFreud Archive. Photo: CourtesyLucian Freud Archive

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d’Offay Gallery. Attracted to Bowery’sfearlessness, he invited him to sit. The artistwas surprised to find that, although known forhis outrageous costumes and body piercings,Bowery chose to pose naked. Despite his sizeFreud found him physically aware, delicateand ‘perfectly beautiful’ and over the nextfour years he became Freud’s most consistentmodel. Freud always shunned working withprofessional models, but, as a performer,Bowery was able to invent and sustaincarnivalesque poses. As a result, Freud’spainting entered its baroque phase. Freud and Bowery developed a close relationship.Although from very different walks of life, theyshared a love of danger and performance ofvery different kinds. Freud was unaware thatBowery was dying of AIDS until shortly beforehis death. Looking at his huge statuesqueproportions, it is hard to believe that he wasso ill. In Leigh Bowery (Seated) he sits naked in an armchair, happy in his own skin, his expression inscrutable and puckish.

Leigh Bowery introduced Freud to friends hethought might interest him, including SueTilley, the Benefits Supervisor, or ‘Big Sue’ asshe became known. Although he was initiallyfascinated by her size, as time passed shebecame more ordinary to him. Freud wasstruck by Sue’s femininity and her pose, as shelounges on the overstuffed sofa in BenefitsSupervisor Sleeping, is as feminine as a RokebyVenus, although less idealised. The four majorpaintings of Big Sue are brought together inone room for this exhibition.

BELOW

Leigh Bowery (Seated),1990Private Collection © The LucianFreud Archive. Photo: CourtesyLucian Freud Archive

TOP

Benefits SupervisorSleeping, 1995 Private Collection © The LucianFreud Archive. Photo: CourtesyLucian Freud Archive

Lucian Freud Portraitsby Sarah Howgate. Essay and interviews by Michael Auping with a contribution by JohnRichardson £35 (hardback) and£25 (Gallery exclusive paperback)

Available from Gallery Shops andonline at www.npg.org.uk/shopPublication date 9 February 2012

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Freud produced many self-portraits throughouthis career and we include twelve, which weencounter throughout the exhibition. In orderto understand the rigours of sitting the artistfelt an obligation to his sitters to makeportraits of himself. A moment to be naked,honest and alone, his self-portraits becameincreasingly inward-looking as his careerprogressed. Reflection (Self-portrait) (1985) is a particularly introspective work. Freud’sgaze is elsewhere, his eyes appearing to belooking inward.

By the early 1990s Freud’s internationalreputation as a modern master of figurationwas firmly established. Despite his new-foundfame, he continued to guard his privacycarefully, and the pattern of his life remainedthe same. His world was the studio and theclose circle of people who visited him there to look at or sit for portraits. The final room of the exhibition will include three paintings of David Dawson, Freud’s constant model and companion in recent years. For the lastfour years Freud had been working on anaffectionate double portrait of Dawson andhis whippet, Eli, Portrait of the Hound.Nowhere is Freud’s abiding theme of thecomplicity between the human and theanimal more evident than in his paintings ofDawson and Eli. Dawson poses nude, lookingup at Freud, while Eli lies beside him. They are equals and their bodies share the samerhythms. Freud said that he knew Dawsonbetter than anyone else. They shared amutual understanding, a respect for one

another and a love of painting. This was to be Freud’s last painting. He had continuedworking on it until he was too frail to carry on,and it was left unfinished on the artist’s easelwhen he died. By observing intently andpainting hard to the last, always with a senseof risk and danger, Freud has given us, in thewords of Bruce Bernard, a ‘deepened sense –far beyond the scope of a photograph or anyother medium – of how certain human beingslooked and felt in the second half of thetwentieth century.’

BELOW RIGHT

Eli and David,2005–6 Private Collection © The LucianFreud Archive. Photo: CourtesyLucian Freud Archive

Lucian Freud: Painting Peoplewith an introduction by MartinGayford and an appreciation byDavid Hockney £10 (paperback)

Available from Gallery Shops andonline at www.npg.org.uk/shopPublication date 9 February 2012

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RICHARD HAMILTON, who died earlier this yearaged eighty-nine, was one of the founders of Pop Art in Britain and among this country’smost respected artists. This display of portraitsof Hamilton, which includes photographs byLord Snowdon and Jorge Lewinski as well asimages by David Hockney and Hamiltonhimself, was originally intended to mark theartist’s approaching ninetieth birthday. It nowpays tribute to a remarkable life and career.

Hamilton was born in Pimlico, London, in 1922.He studied at St Martin’s School of Art (1936),the Royal Academy (1938–40) – from which

he was expelled for failing to respond toinstruction in painting – and the Slade Schoolof Art (1948–51). However, it was not until1956, when Hamilton was in his thirties, that he made the collage Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, soappealing, a seminal work that became oneof the icons of Pop Art. By then Hamilton’smembership of the Independent Group, which met in the early 1950s at the Instituteof Contemporary Arts, had provided a focusfor study and appreciation of popular culture,particularly that emanating from America.The visual language of contemporary society– advertisements, consumer products,packaging, magazines, cinema, fashion anddesign – fascinated Hamilton and in Just whatis it he incorporated all these elements within a single, telling image. It was the beginning of a sustained interrogation and celebrationof mass culture in the form of art, a missionthat he later described as striving ‘for a newimage of art to signify an understanding ofman’s changing state…’.

In addition to painting, which was his primary medium, Hamilton’s artistic visionencompassed printmaking, sculpture,photography and, latterly, computertechnology. All these processes served anartist whose illuminating engagement withthe modern world remains unique.

LEFT

Richard Hamiltonby Richard Hamilton, 1970© DACS

BELOW

Richard Hamiltonby Jorge Lewinski, 1964© The Lewinski Archive atChatsworth

Richard Hamilton: Portraits of the Artist will be on display until 14 May 2012 in Room 32. Admission free

RICHARD HAMILTON: PORTRAITS OF THE ARTISTby Paul MoorhouseCurator, 20th Century

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NATURAL ARTS: GREAT LANDSCAPE DESIGNERS

OF THE 18TH CENTURY brings togetherportraits of eighteenth-century gardendesigners from the National Portrait Gallerywith modern photographs of the NationalTrust gardens where they made their mark,together with audio commentaries on theirliving legacy from the National Trust staff who care for the featured sites.

The eighteenth century was the golden age of garden design, as landscape designers suchas Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716–1783)reshaped country estates into an idealisedvision of rural Britain. Brown tore up terraces,dug basins for lakes and excavated greatmounds of earth to create open vistas ofgently rolling slopes which he populated with roaming herds of cattle and sheep. Hepunctuated these views with neo-classicaltemples – his aptly named ‘eye-catchers’.

Brown’s triumph confirmed the gardener’snewfound fame. His portrait, by NathanielDance, the centrepiece of this display, affirmshis status and charisma. But Brown was notalone in his success. The landscape gardenwas a long-standing British phenomenon and this display includes portraits of Brown’sforerunners and successors, such as WilliamKent (c.1685–1748), who filled the gardens at Stowe with coded political messages, and Humphry Repton (1752–1818), who incorporated features from Brown’slandscapes into his design for SheringhamPark in Norfolk.

Natural Arts pairs portraits with contemporaryphotography selected from the National Trust’sextensive picture library to explore the livinglegacy of the giants of eighteenth-centurylandscape design. Gardeners such as Brown,Kent and Repton transformed the aristocraticestate into a place of beauty and leisure. Theirgardens continue to serve this purpose today,as new generations of visitors enjoy theircarefully crafted views of the British landscapegarden thanks to the National Trust.

NATURAL ARTS: GREATLANDSCAPE DESIGNERS OF THE 18TH CENTURYby Clare BarlowAssistant Curator

Natural Arts: GreatLandscape Designers of the 18th Centuryfrom 11 February 2012until 30 January 2013Beningbrough Hall, North Yorkshire

BELOW

The Temple of BritishWorthies, c.1735, with thePalladian Bridge beyond.Stowe Landscape Gardens,Buckinghamshire©NTPL/Jerry Harpur

This exhibition has been organised by the NationalPortrait Gallery and the National Trust. BeningbroughHall is a long-term Regional Partner of the NationalPortrait Gallery.

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past year, has been incorporated into theaccompanying text.

For the original display, seven internationallyrenowned authors composed fictionalbiographies and character sketches, givingimaginary identities to the people in theportraits. The stories were available to readalongside the paintings and were published inan illustrated book. Exclusively for the displayat the National Portrait Gallery, AlexanderMcCall Smith has written a brand new storyinspired by the additional portrait of themystery woman. The new story has beenpublished in a beautifully re-designed bookthat also includes the original stories byauthors John Banville, Tracy Chevalier, JulianFellowes, Terry Pratchett, Sarah Singleton,Joanna Trollope and Minette Walters.

Accompanying events include a talk by Joanna Trollope on 23 February 2012 and a lunch-time talk by Minette Walters on 19 April 2012. For more information about the Gallery’s talks and events programme,please visit www.npg.org.uk/whatson or call 0207 306 0055.

Author Tracy Chevalier on writing two shortstories for Imagined Lives: ‘A Hand on MyShoulder’ and ‘Rosy’:

I was intrigued to discover that the National Portrait Gallery owns quite anumber of ‘orphans’ – portraits wronglyassumed to be certain people, but now

THE PORTRAITS in this display depict peoplewhose identities have been lost or becomeuncertain. Dating from between 1520 and1650, each painting was purchased by theGallery as a known person, including suchillustrious figures as Queen Elizabeth I and the poet Sir Thomas Overbury. However, theiridentities have since been disputed and, as aresult, each has become an ‘unknown sitter’.

Previously on show at the Gallery’s RegionalPartner Montacute House in Somerset, thisdisplay has been augmented by a remarkableaddition: a portrait from c.1570 of a womanformerly thought to be Mary, Queen of Scots.Furthermore, new information about some of the portraits, which has emerged in the

IMAGINED LIVES: PORTRAITS OF UNKNOWN PEOPLE by Catherine Daunt Imagined Lives Project Curator

BELOW LEFT

FALSE MARYby Alexander McCall Smith

Unknown woman, formerly knownas Mary, Queen of Scots (1542–87)(detail) by an unknown artist, c.1570

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disconnected from any biography. Thesubjects in these paintings no longer have names or history attached; it givesthem an untethered, floating quality, like a balloon that has escaped into the sky.

I wrote a novel about just such a painting:Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. We know nothing about her – who she is, herrelation to Vermeer – and I had to guess at her story just from her clothes, herexpression, and Vermeer’s desire to painther. So I am familiar with looking for thetelling details that might give us someindication of a subject’s character. I lovehaving just a little bit to set me off.

‘Rosy’, the young man I wrote about, has flushed cheeks and wears a gorgeous,almost dandyish doublet. The noblewomanin ‘A Hand on My Shoulder’ is gaunt, withfeverish eyes. Both are well off – Tudorportraits rarely depict anyone poor. Fromthose few clues I have built moments thatreveal quite a lot about the two, their loves,their concerns, their sorrows. It’s surprisinghow much you can pack into 500 words.

I hope that these brief stories will encourageviewers to think up their own stories aboutpaintings they look at, whether the subjectis known or not. A face carries in it a wholeworld to unlock.

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BELOW TOP

ROSYby Tracy Chevalier

Probably Sir RobertDudley (1574–1649), formerly known as SirThomas Overbury (1581–1613)by an unknown artist

BOTTOM

A HAND ON MYSHOULDERby Tracy Chevalier

Unknown woman, formerly known as Queen Elizabeth I(1533–1603)by an unknown artist

Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People will be ondisplay until 22 July 2012 in Room 33. Admission free

Imagined Lives: Portraits ofUnknown People£7.99 (paperback)Available from Gallery Shops and online at www.npg.org.uk/shop

See back cover for special GallerySupporters’ Offer

F2F_Issue 38_FINAL_Layout 1 31/01/2012 13:21 Page 17

of the Edwardian age to appeal to thepostwar generation. After Monckton’s deathin 1924, Millar married the immensely richWilliam Humble Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley.

Researching Gertie Millar online brought me to the National Portrait Gallery’s websiteand a description of Millar as ‘Jumping Jack’ in the revue Bric-à-Brac. I visited the Gallery’sPhotographs Department, where curatorsconfirmed my suspicion that the portraits weretaken by Rita Martin. I am delighted that theNational Portrait Gallery is commemoratingthe sixtieth anniversary of Millar’s death with a display showcasing photographs by RitaMartin, Bassano and the Lafayette studios. By all accounts, not least Noël Coward’s, Millar was charming, gracious and absolutelyunique, qualities that have survived in themany photographs taken of her.

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MY INTEREST in Gertie Millar began a fewyears ago when I first showed an Edwardianalbum of photographs from the Museum ofLondon collection to a student researching thedressmaker Lucile. The album contained thirty-seven photographs of a very pretty youngwoman in a variety of fabulous disguises,including the Lucile dress, who was sometimesaccompanied by a dog. I fell in love with it and wanted to know more about the sitter and her photographer.

I learned that she was Gertie Millar, born in1879 in Bradford where she first appeared onthe stage aged twelve. By 1899 Gertie was amember of a touring company with severalengagements in and around London. Herearly career coincided with the rise of a newform of entertainment: musical comedies withfar-fetched, highly improbable storylines thatattracted huge audiences, including the newking, Edward VII. Millar’s first major role wasas the bridesmaid Cora in The Toreador, which opened on 17 June 1901 and ran for a staggering 675 performances. At the end of 1902 Millar married one of the composers,the former lawyer and theatre critic LionelMonckton, who together with Ivan Caryllwrote many hit songs for his wife. Among hergreatest successes were the title roles in OurMiss Gibbs (1909) and The Quaker Girl (1910).

Millar continued to perform during the FirstWorld War and retired from the stage in 1918.The musical comedy style was becomingoutdated and Millar was too much a product

SEARCHING FOR GERTIE MILLARby Beatrice BehlenSenior Curator, Fashion & Decorative Arts,Museum of London

BELOW

Gertie Millar as ‘JumpingJack’ in Bric-à-Brac(detail) by Rita Martin,1916Courtesy of Museum of London

Gertie Millar, Countess ofDudley: Stage to Societyfrom 16 April until 16 December 2012Room 31Admission Free

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‘payments for information’ needed to bedebated, and I wanted to examine how highmonetary value – as the principal motivationfor art theft – can be understood when stolenworks cannot actually be sold on. I was alsofascinated with the influence of ideas of arttheft as they appear in fiction and film – whatyou might call ‘the Thomas Crown effect’. Allthis and more is included in Art Theft and theCase of the Stolen Turners, now published byReaktion Books.

IT WAS A VERY unexpected development in my work that in 1994 I became the co-ordinator of the efforts to recover twoimportant late paintings by J.M.W. Turner,stolen while on loan from the Tate to a publicgallery in Frankfurt. I was working as one oftwo deputies to Nicholas Serota when he rangearly on the morning of Friday 30 July 1994with the terrible news that two paintings fromthe Turner Bequest – Shade and Darknessand Light and Colour – had been taken in thenight. A complex pursuit followed, with manytwists and turns, and an eventual agreement,in 2000, with various authorities in Germanyand Britain, that a ‘fee for information, leadingto recovery’ could be paid to a German lawyer.

The actual thieves had by this time been jailed,but this lawyer was in touch with those whonow had control of the paintings – crucially,they were not the criminals who had organisedthe original theft. One of my greatest worrieswas that in the intervening period variouscriminals might have tried to make copies ofthe paintings. So when I made an inspectionof the first painting on 19 July 2000 inFrankfurt, it was with Roy Perry, the Tate’ssenior conservator of paintings, at my side. We had to be certain that this actually was the Turner painting.

After spending eight and a half years on thepursuit, I decided that a book which would tellthe story and analyse some of the key factorsin high-value art theft might be worth while.Difficult ethical questions surrounding

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CHASING THE TURNERS: ART THEFT AND THE CASE OF THE STOLEN TURNERSby Sandy NairneDirector and Author

Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turnersby Sandy Nairne£20.00 (hardback)Available from Gallery Shops and online atwww.npg.org.uk/shop

To purchase an exclusive signed copy of Art Theft andthe Case of the Stolen Turners by Sandy Nairne for thespecial Gallery Supporters’ offer price of £18.00 (RRP£20.00, hardback) please telephone 020 7321 6624,quoting ‘Face to Face’. Offer subject to availability,cost of UK postage and packing not included (£2.99).Valid from 6 February 2012 until 31 May 2012.

F2F_Issue 38_FINAL_Layout 1 31/01/2012 13:21 Page 19

Spring Offer for GallerySupporters

This offer is only open toNational Portrait GalleryMembers, Associates andPatrons and is not available in conjunction with any other offer.

Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People

The latest National Portrait Gallery publication, Imagined Lives:Portraits of Unknown People, includes imaginary biographiesand character sketches by acclaimed authors John Banville,Tracy Chevalier, Julian Fellowes, Alexander McCall Smith, Terry Pratchett, Sarah Singleton, Joanna Trollope and MinetteWalters, based on fourteen unidentified portraits in the Gallery’sCollection. With fictional letters, diaries, mini-biographies andmemoirs, Imagined Lives creates vivid stories about theseunknown sitters from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

To purchase a copy of Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People at the special Gallery Supporters’ price of £6.40 in theGallery Shops (a 20% discount, RRP £7.99, paperback), pleasequote ‘Face to Face Imagined Lives Offer’ to Gallery retail staff.

Offer subject to availability. Valid from 6 February 2012 until 31 May 2012.

EXCLUSIVE GALLERY PUBLICATION OFFER

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