Iconic Tudor portraits to go on show at city gallery
Some of the most renowned works of Tudor art are coming to the West as part of a major exhibition next year.
The National Portrait Gallery is allowing some of its best-known works to leave London and feature in major new exhibitions in cities across England.
The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics will open at the Holburne Museum in Bath in January with 25 of the gallery’s most famous Tudor portraits.
That will be followed by an expanded exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool the following May, featuring 68 works.
It is the first time such a significant number of the National Portrait Gallery’s Tudor portraits have been lent for exhibition, the gallery said.
The London gallery is currently closed for a major revamp and will not reopen until spring 2023.
Also on loan together for first time are 58 of the gallery’s portraits of the Bloomsbury Group and their closest associates. Beyond Bloomsbury: Life, Love And Legacy will open at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield in November this year before moving to York Art Gallery in March 2022.
Dr Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with our colleagues in Bath, Liverpool, Sheffield and York to create this once-in-a-generation opportunity to see some of the nation’s best-loved portraits exhibited together outside of London.
“Through all our projects and partnerships we hope to be able to share our collection with new and different audiences across the UK, some of whom may not have had the opportunity to visit the gallery in London.”
Chris Stephens, director of the Holburne Museum, said: “Portraiture is one of the mainstays of the Holburne’s collection so it is entirely fitting that we should mount an exhibition that explores artists’ depictions of the key players in the drama of dynastic, political and religious conflict enacted on both a national and international stage.
“We are delighted and honoured to be working with colleagues at the National Portrait Gallery and National Museums Liverpool to bring to the South West a display of paintings of such extraordinary richness. It is a rare opportunity to show such iconic works together at the Holburne.”
The Tudors: Passion, Power And Politics presents the five Tudor monarchs – Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I – as well as other significant figures such as Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Robert Dudley and William Cecil.
Beyond Bloomsbury: Life, Love And Legacy will feature key figures from the group, including Virginia Woolf and her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell.