National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. The gallery collection is made up of more than 200,000 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and photographs. Since 1969, the collection has included portraits of living people.
Some portraits in the collection were painted by such noted British artists as William Hogarth and Sir Joshua Reynolds . However, most of the paintings are primarily of historical interest. The collection includes the Chandos portrait, the best-known painting of William Shakespeare , though some scholars dispute whether the man in the painting is really Shakespeare. It is the first portrait owned by the gallery. The collection also includes a famous group portrait of the writers Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë painted by their brother, Branwell.
The National Portrait Gallery opened in 1856 as the first museum in the world dedicated to portraits. The collection was housed in a number of locations throughout London until it moved in 1896 into its present building just off Trafalgar Square next to the National Gallery. The portrait gallery was designed by the British architect Ewan Christian. The building has been expanded twice, in 1933 and in 2000.
In addition to its main location, the National Portrait Gallery also displays portrait collections in three historic buildings outside London. They are Beningbrough Hall in North Yorkshire, Montacute House in South Somerset, and Bodelwyddan Castle in Wales.
