Touristing at the NPG
Sunday, 5th March 2006 by JulieTom is a member of the parish council at St Simons, and yesterday was their annual away-day. This meant I had the day to myself and I decided to get in an excursion.
I took myself off to the National Portrait Gallery near Leicester Square which I’ve never visited before despite two holiday visits to London, almost 5 years of living here, and the fact that it’s free.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Tom has never been enthusiastic about looking at portraits so I wasn’t overly hopeful, but it turned out to be a fascinating place to visit.
While I do appreciate art and enjoy wandering around galleries, I don’t make any claims to be an art buff. So for me this gallery was the most interesting one I’ve ever visited because these were pictures literally bringing history to life. All the memorable names now suddenly had faces: from Thomas More and Samuel Pepys to the great scientists and engineers like Fleming, Boyle and Stephenson.
I went round in completely the wrong order to see things chronologically – I didn’t notice until I was halfway through that the visitors’ guide suggested starting on the second floor and working down!
The ground floor was where I realised that there was a lot more to portraits than I’d initially thought. The theme was Britain since 1990, and they had various paintings, sculptures and photos of lots of famous names which it was quite cool to recognise – including a very cleverly done 3D painting of J.K. Rowling.
The first floor dwelt briefly on the 20th Century before moving on to the densely populated Victorian galleries. I had picked up an audio tour-guide for £2 which offered bonus info on some paintings and was occasionally amusing. One such occasion was the commentary on a painting of a very youthful looking Charles Dickens. The commentary ended with an extract from one of Dickens’ peers who was bemoaning the fact that his 10-year-old daughter (yes, that’s right a 10-year-old!) would far rather read Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby (which she apparently loved to bits -my paraphrase- and read all the time) than any of her father’s writings!
As the Victorian era moved on, we started getting a photos introduced. Some of these were of Captain Scott and his ill-fated North Pole team, paired with sad entries from his diary in his final days.
Upstairs, I found the second floor was packed with British royalty. The paintings in the 16th and 17th Century sections were glorious creations with every type of exquisite detail captured in oil paint, and occasionally gold leaf. This was where the real walk through British history started with snippets of info on every king and queen next to their painting.
My initial plan to move on after an hour or two and do some shopping or see a movie had been cast aside with no regrets, but time got the better of me as the afternoon progressed. Consequently the 19th century went by in rather a blur so that I could make it home by 16h00; but it’s not too serious – it just leaves me with some more to look at on my next visit. (When there will also be some time allocated for the afternoon tea at the top-floor restaurant! 
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