Навчальний посібник для студентів ос «Бакалавр» галузі знань 03 «Гуманітарні науки»

Not all of the portraits are exceptional artistically, although there are 
self-portraits by William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds and other British 
artists of note. Some, such as the group portrait of the participants in 
the Somerset House Conference of 1604, are important historical documents 
in their own right. Often, the curiosity value is greater than the artistic worth 
of a work, as in the case of the anamorphic portrait of Edward VI by William 
Scrots, Patrick 
Branwell 
Brontë's 
painting 
of 
his 
sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne, 
or 
a 
sculpture 
of Queen 
Victoria and Prince Albert in medieval costume. Portraits of living figures 
were allowed from 1969. In addition to its permanent galleries of historical 
portraits, the National Portrait Gallery exhibits a rapidly changing selection of 
contemporary work, stages exhibitions of portrait art by individual artists and 
hosts the annual BP Portrait Prize competition. 
The three people largely responsible for the founding of the National 
Portrait Gallery are commemorated with busts over the main entrance. At 
centre is Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope, with his supporters on 
either side, Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (to Stanhope's 
left) andThomas Carlyle (to Stanhope's right). It was Stanhope who, in 1846 
as a Member of Parliament (MP), first proposed the idea of a National Portrait 
Gallery. It was not until his third attempt, in 1856, this time from the House 
of Lords, that the proposal was accepted. With Queen Victoria's approval, the 
House of Commons set aside a sum of £2000 to establish the gallery. As well 
as Stanhope and Macaulay, the founder Trustees included Benjamin 
Disraeli and Lord Ellesmere. It was the latter who donated the Chandos 
portrait to the nation as the gallery's first portrait. Carlyle became a trustee 
after the death of Ellesmere in 1857.
For the first 40 years, the gallery was housed in various locations in 
London. The first 13 years were spent at 29 Great George Street,Westminster. 
There, the collection increased in size from 57 to 208 items, and the number 

153 
of visitors from 5,300 to 34,500. In 1869, the collection moved to Exhibition 
Road and buildings managed by the Royal Horticultural Society. Following a 
fire in those buildings, the collection was moved in 1885, this time to 
the Bethnal Green Museum. This location was ultimately unsuitable due to its 
distance from the West End, condensation and lack of waterproofing. 
Following calls for a new location to be found, the government accepted an 
offer of funds from the philanthropist William Henry Alexander. Alexander 
donated £60,000 followed by another £20,000, and also chose the 
architect, Ewan Christian. The government provided the new site, St Martin's 
Place, adjacent to the National Gallery, and £16,000.
The buildings, faced 
in Portland stone, were constructed by Shillitoe & Son.
Both the architect, 
Ewan Christian, and the gallery's first director, George Scharf, died shortly 
before the new building was completed. The gallery opened at its new 
location on 4 April 1896.
The site has since been expanded twice. The first 
extension, in 1933, was funded by Lord Duveen, and resulted in the wing by 
architect Sir Richard Allison
 
that runs along Orange Street. 
The collections of the National Portrait Gallery were stored 
at Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire during the Second World War, 
along with pieces from the Royal Collection and paintings from Speaker's 
House in the Palace of Westminster.
In February 1909, a murder–suicide took place in a gallery known as 
the 
Arctic Room
. In an apparently planned attack, John Tempest Dawson, 
aged 70, shot his 58 year–old wife, Nannie Caskie; Dawson shot her from 
behind with a revolver, then shot himself in the mouth, dying instantly. His 
wife died in hospital several hours later. Both were American nationals who 
had lived in Hove for around 10 years.
Evidence at the inquest suggested that 
Dawson, a wealthy and well–travelled man, was suffering from a Persecutory 
delusion.
The incident came to public attention in 2010 when the Gallery's 

archive was put on-line as this included a personal account of the event 
by James Donald Milner, then the Assistant Director of the Gallery.

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